'Vague' Lenihan fails to deliver on the detail
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Wednesday October 15 2008
FINANCE minister Brian Lenihan ducked making tough decisions yesterday in a string of major policy areas, most notably public sector reform.
He might have imposed a string of taxes and charges on hard-pressed workers, but he shirked swinging the axe on the HSE and other areas of lavish government spending.
Faced with a ballooning public sector wage bill, the minister admitted to a startled Dail that the Health Service Executive had taken on 1,900 administrative staff since 2004.
But amazingly in his Budget speech he offered no remedies, just a vague suggestion of "talks" over an early retirement scheme which might yield a small reduction in staff.
And on public service pay in general, there was no pain for anyone, merely a promise of a "focused review" on public sector numbers in all areas.
He announced a 10pc pay cut for ministers but instead of grasping the nettle, he simply said public servants in other senior positions "may wish to consider" a similar move.
One of Mr Lenihan's biggest evasions yesterday came over the issue of the decentralisation programme. Offering no details for savings, he said he was deferring decisions on the implementation of the rest of the programme -- until 2011.
The minister was also vague on the subject of universal child benefit payments. He said: "I am proposing in the Budget this year to initiate action in this direction in some areas and to promote a wider debate in others."
Promise
But there were no measures, just another promise of a future review at some point by the commission on taxation. He added: "I look forward to giving careful consideration to any progressive proposals that they may make in this area."
At one point it seemed there might be action on the National Pension Reserve Fund, battered recently by global stock market fluctuations. But all he announced was a review, ready by the end of the year.
In education, there had been fears he might take action to get more money out of students and their parents, but again there was just nothing to fear.
Mr Lenihan said: "The minister for education and science has announced that he is undertaking a review on the appropriate student contribution to the substantial cost of third level education."
Even the disclosure of 41 quangos facing the chop was lacking in detail, with little or no information on savings and job losses and with some of the affected agencies completely in the dark over the proposals.
- Ciaran Byrne
