Economic council excludes key ministries, says Burton

Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton has criticised the Economic Management Council saying it has excluded the big-spending Government departments from key budgetary discussions.

Ms Burton said that leaving “big beast” spending departments such Social Protection, Health and Education outside the budgetary process resulted in incomplete analysis of the impact of major economic decisions. The secrecy around the deliberations left inadequate time for the wider Cabinet to discuss the options chosen, she claimed.

“There was a similar economic council in the UK but what Gordon Brown did was he brought in the big spending departments, or ‘the big beasts’ as he called them, and made them part of the discussion,” said Ms Burton, in an interview with The Irish Times.

The council, or EMC, comprises the Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan and Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin. It oversees Government economic policy and also manages adherence to the bailout programme.

Other senior Ministers have also expressed concern about being left out of this core group, which makes the key economic decisions that underpin the budget.

Earlier this month, Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney disclosed he was not happy with the role of the EMC in controlling all pre-budget discussions.

Unhappy

“I don’t like the fact that I wasn’t more involved in the build-up to some of the decisions, although all of the final decisions were made collectively by the full Cabinet and it’s important that I would say that, so I stand over all of the decisions.

“But I would like to have been involved, as I think would other Cabinet members in the reasoning and debate around coming to some of those decisions at an earlier stage.”

In contrast, all four Ministers in the EMC have defended its role and operations.

War Cabinet

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, said this month: “This is a war Cabinet whose job it is to steer economic policy and to ensure there is joined-up government but Government decisions are made by the full Cabinet.”

Mr Gilmore has also said the budget was discussed by the Cabinet as a whole before being approved.

He said this was in contrast to previous administrations where most ministers learned of the contents of the budget only on the morning of its announcement.

Ms Burton said she had no problem with a structure that brought together both leaders and finance ministers. But she suggested the Government should examine what the Labour Party did in Britain.

“Unless you have Health, Education, Social Protection and big employer departments you are basing a budget on an economic model which does not necessarily have a sufficient detailed examination of the impact of economic decisions on big-spending departments.”

Ms Burton has also expressed concern about two separate research findings she says make Ireland an “outlier” compared to other EU countries. She said 16 per cent of adults of working age in Ireland were on disability, illness or sickness benefit, which was very high, and said a focus would be to encourage as many as possible to find employment.

She also said more than one in five Irish households had no working adult, and disclosed there was a high level of wholly unemployed families even during the boom years. This was a problem that also needed to be addressed, she said.