IT article: "State spending has soared by 1/3rd since 2016 with little discernible benefit"

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

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State spending has soared by one third since 2016, with little discernible benefit to Ireland’s citizens

Economically Ireland has no right-of-centre politics, and public spending has jumped by a third since the 2016 election
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I challenge anyone to explain how public services and infrastructure have improved in tandem with the rise in public spending. What stands out is the incrementalism of it all. Nobody in advance of the 2016 election set out a plan to grow the State in real terms by well over a third. We have never had a conversation on that scale. Yet somehow, slyly, silently it happened.

Fine Gael in government has presided over ballooning public spending. It is a fake right party mouthing platitudes but refusing to practise the virtues. Fianna Fáil has joined it and there is no discernible policy difference. Economically Ireland has no right-of-centre politics.
 
I couldn't agree more Brendan! This has been a noticeable trend, fueled by low borrowing rates and turbo charged by Covid. Now the cycle has turned with rising interest rates etc. no political party has the guts to call this out. The centre in Ireland is clearly to the left and stuck there! There has to be a gap for at least a right of centre party.
 
But why has this happened in Ireland, the drift to the left but not elsewhere in Europe where politics is moving to the right.
I think it is the media here frightening the mainstream away from common sense financial probity and towards leftist social spending. This is facilitated by the huge corporation tax bonanza
 
Our expansion of the State has been done to avoid the consequences of our previous actions and has resulted in making the economy less competitive and the country less attractive for the foreign direct investment that the whole thing is built on. We are drowning the golden goose in State funded lard.
 
joe sod said:
I think it is the media here frightening the mainstream away from common sense financial probity and towards leftist social spending.
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I agree. The (Cork) Examiner and the Irish Times are strongly left wing. The Shinners are brilliant at manipulating social media and the Government Parties are appallingly bad at communicating their message so instead they react to Shinner Twitterbots and the Trade Union Mouthpiece that is RTE.
 
joe sod said:
But why has this happened in Ireland, the drift to the left but not elsewhere in Europe where politics is moving to the right.
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Europe is a bit 'ahead' in terms of migrant issues, that's why they're turning right.
 
Just listened to a recent podcast from David mcwilliams and he was making this very point among others. The state spending has increased by 35 billion in last 5 years to 105 billion but we haven't got 35 billion in extra infrastructure like roads, railways ,water or electricity. Whatever about the celtic tiger era he said we did manage to build alot of houses and infrastructure then which we are getting the benefits of now whereas the 35 billion extra spending in last 5 years has resulted in no discernible benefits.
He said this money has been spent on increased welfare, public sector wages and jobs and more bureaucracy.

When asked why has this been happening he said the administration and civil service has no real skin in the game, if they make bad decisions or waste money they cannot be fired or moved down. Therefore they just let things drift, it is easier not to make a decision than make a controversial decision.
The corporation tax bonanza has allowed this drift to continue because once the money keeps rolling in hard decisions don't have to be made.

One of those difficult decisions is that demand for houses needs to be reduced drastically as the state apparatus cannot provide the number of houses need for this rapid rise in population. Immigration into Ireland was 150K last year but 60K of that was returning Irish and eu who have a legal right to reside here. However 90K from outside the EU is at the gift of the government through work visas etc and this needs to be cut back in order to bring housing demand and supply into sync. However the administration is not prepared to make controversial decisions so they just let everything drift. They won't be fired for doing nothing
 
I'd say that McWilliams has it spot on, or as near as doesn't matter....

Mind you, we can probably claim to have the most valuable bike shed in all of Europe, so it's not all doom and gloom ;)
 
Hi Joe, does he give any explanation for the following confusing argument:
the celtic tiger era he said we did manage to build alot of houses and infrastructure then which we are getting the benefits of now
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which I think is valid but then explains the current lack of infrastructure improvement as

When asked why has this been happening he said the administration and civil service has no real skin in the game, if they make bad decisions or waste money they cannot be fired or moved down. Therefore they just let things drift, it is easier not to make a decision than make a controversial decision.
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Was the civil service somehow organised differently in the Celtic tiger era to allow all this infrastructure to be built? Did it have skin in the game back then which it now does not?
Blaming nameless civil servants/systems is an easy cop out because nobody is ever named directly individually that can return fire or rebuke the argument.
 
bill_cash said:
Was the civil service somehow organised differently in the Celtic tiger era to allow all this infrastructure to be built?
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It was a lot smaller, and had less extensive powers.
bill_cash said:
Blaming nameless civil servants/systems is an easy cop out because nobody is ever named directly individually that can never return fire or rebuke the argument.
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If a system is deemed to be deficient, it would be a cop out not to highlight that.
 
bill_cash said:
it was smaller who allowed it to get larger?
If it had less extensive powers who gave it those powers?
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Corporation tax money was flowing in so government drift allowed all these new roles in public sector and quangos to mushroom. There is alot more bureaucratic regulations now than there were during celtic tiger.
Look at all the stuff around GDPR and data protection that is a minefield so loads more jobs in "regulating " all that are created. Our government seemed to take all that gdpr stuff to the nth degree whereas other countries effectively ignored it.
 
joe sod said:
Look at all the stuff around GDPR and data protection that is a minefield so loads more jobs in "regulating " all that are created. Our government seemed to take all that gdpr stuff to the nth degree whereas other countries effectively ignored it.
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We have to be GDPR compliant where I work. I can say with certainty that it places no additional administrative burden or cost on us. Blaming regulation is just a fig leaf used to hide ineptitude and incompetence.
 
Is the 1/3rd increase in state spending not just keeping in line with 8 years inflation from 2016 to 2024 in particular the high inflation experienced in 2022/23 ?
 
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