MR QUINN has admitted the Coalition failed to curb the demands of the various "spending" Departments of government.
"Constraining the growth of public expenditure will be central to achieving the Government's medium-term budgetary goals," the Minister said in his Budget speech. "To date, we have not been as effective in this area as we would wish. It is essential that we improve our performance."
Analysts said last night that government spending had increased by almost 63 per cent since 1990, compared with inflation of just 15 per cent for the period. If total government expenditure had simply increased at the same rate as inflation, one observer noted, Mr Quinn would have had £2.8 billion to spare last night.
The Fianna Fail finance spokesman, Mr Charlie McCreevy - although he could not have expected such an admission from his political opponent - referred to this trend in his reply to Mr Quinn in the House.
The way the Government had behaved over the last two years would do lasting damage, he said, adding that the Budget attempted - to increase public spending while cutting taxation. That would reduce the room for manoeuvre in future.
MrMcCreevy pointed to an attempt by Fianna Fail "to spend its way out of a crisis in 1977", which, he confessed, had not worked. Equally, the current Government strategy would also fail, he predicted.
Mr Quinn said that one step towards correcting overspending by government would be to adopt the wide-ranging programme of financial management reforms set out in the Government document Delivering Better Government.
In what could be seen as an indication of how much behind-the-scenes horse-trading went on at Cabinet between the Ministers of the various Coalition parties to agree the Budget, Mr Quinn stressed "the primary responsibility of spending Departments for managing their expenditure programmes".
These should be contained within pre-set limits, he warned, and Departments should then take responsibility for the results,
A key element of the new system, Mr Quinn told the Dail, would be agreements between his own Department of Finance and the spending Departments on a rolling programme of expenditure reviews.
Under these, the objectives and the rationale for the continuation of all major Departmental spending programmes would be subjected to systematic evaluation over a period of three years, he said.
"It is also my intention to reflect on how the relationship between my Department and the spending Departments should develop, in the context of a devolved, medium-term approach to expenditure management," Mr Quinn said.
The main aim of this, he added, would be to improve the effectiveness of overall control of government spending.
In the financial world, commentators were quick last night to point up Mr Quinn's admission, arguing that the Government had missed an opportunity to reduce the national debt.
Bloxham Stockbrokers said if public spending were curbed, there was no reason why the Republic could not aim for a balanced budget, eliminating completely the Exchequer Borrowing Requirement.
"Unfortunately, public expenditure is again set to rise well above inflation in 1997," the firm said in a statement. "It doesn't bear thinking about that Ireland could have had significant tax reform and/or a substantial reduction in the National Debt, but successive governments spent taxpayers' money as if it were going out of fashion."