UNSETTLING the public with talk about introducing a €50 charge for medical cards represented a low point in recent infighting between Ministers as they attempted to minimise the effect of next week’s budget on their departments.
It was one of many possible charges/cutbacks “floated” in order to gauge public reaction or to stir up supportive lobby groups. The behaviour represented discredited, old-style politics. It has diminished confidence in the Government’s capacity for innovative thinking and in its ability to chart a coherent path to recovery. Any talk of encouraging spending, it seems, has been abandoned in favour of remorseless, crude cuts.
There is no denying the difficulties facing the Government. The terms of the EU-IMF bailout requires a fiscal adjustment of €3.8 billion. At the same time, the prospect of exporting our way out of trouble has become more problematical as the OECD anticipates a mild recession in Britain and parts of Europe next year and reduced growth here. In that context, an anticipated job creation fund of €100 million, to be based on pension funds and foreign capital, does not impress. Creating jobs, protecting the most needy and requiring others to contribute according to their means should be the priorities in this budget.
Having fought the general election on the basis of sharply different commitments, Fine Gael and the Labour Party have experienced difficulty in reconciling their disparate approaches to cutbacks, taxation and spending. Just how well those problems have been dealt with at Cabinet should become apparent later this week when Taoiseach Enda Kenny delivers a state-of-the-nation address. More thought appears to have been given to packaging and selling the budget than to providing informed discussion on possible cutbacks, services and new charges. That represents the traditional approach. And it has passed its sell-by date. Now that the broad outline of future budgets will be communicated in advance to other states, a properly functioning democracy should include the Dáil becoming involved in detailed and early consideration of these matters. Pre-budget submissions could go to Dáil committees, rather than to the Department of Finance, with Ministers making final decisions.
In fairness, the Government has provided more advance information on the budgetary process than any of its predecessors. That improvement has, however, been overshadowed by a rash of ministerial “kite-flying” designed to confuse, upset and protect. Because of that, a new budget format under which Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin will address reductions in spending across the public service next Monday while Minister for Finance Michael Noonan will deal with taxation and charges on the following day has received little attention. The initiative could allow decisions to be debated in a broader context by the Dáil. But it is more likely to end in political point-scoring involving, in particular, the Croke Park agreement and income-tax commitments.