'Extraordinarily low' level of expertise

ECONOMISTS:THE DEPARTMENT of Finance should over the next two years double the number of economists educated to master's level that it employs, the review of the department's performance has said.

The Wright report noted that the staff in the department included only 39 economists trained to master’s level, equal to approximately 10 per cent of the department’s core staff. This was an “extraordinarily low” percentage, the report said.

In contrast, 60 per cent of the Canadian department of finance are economists trained to master’s level or higher and about 40 per cent of staff in the core areas of the Dutch finance ministry are trained to master’s level or higher.

The department did not need to have economists make up 60 per cent of its staff but must “make an urgent and sustained effort to boost its number of economists and other skilled staff.

“Management should define the technical needs of positions and hire the best person for the job whether from within government or otherwise.”

The appointees should comprise a mix of recent university graduates and experienced individuals and be assigned to positions throughout the organisation.

The department should maintain a regular inflow of new university recruits.

The report said staff should be allowed publish professional economic analyses that are identified as not being the views of the department.

The department should immediately seek the secondment of skilled personnel on a two-year rotation from institutions such as the Central Bank, the National Treasury Management Agency and the Economic and Social Research Institute.

The report said the department paid insufficient attention to the macro-economic risks that Ireland faced during the period of the review.

This was in part due to a shortage of highly trained economists and financial market experts in the department.

It was also due to an insufficient oversight of the various agencies tasked with contributing to Ireland’s financial stability, the report said.

The department also appeared to have had too limited a view of its own responsibility to monitor the comprehensive set of macroeconomic risks that existed.

While the effort and professionalism of the department during the banking crisis was praised by parties who worked with it, the extraordinary pace of activity exposed some major shortcomings, the report said.

The department had neither the time nor the resources to conduct in-depth investigation of the issues, reflecting a shortage of skills in the requisite disciplines, it said.