Public bodies in State 'mushrooming'

The number of public bodies in the State has increased by over 600 per cent in the past three decades and the degree of transparency around them is questionable, according to research published yesterday.

The study, Outsourcing Government: public bodies and accountability, from the Tasc (Thinktank for Social Change) organisation, was carried out to "untangle the fog index around how the country is run", according to a statement.

Among its findings are that there are about 500 public bodies operating with a national remit. "These have developed rapidly. There were three in 1927, 80 in 1979." They have developed in a completely ad hoc manner, the report said. "Many of these bodies are not covered by the different measures to provide transparency, such as the Freedom of Information legislation.

"There are more than 5,000 appointments at national level alone and the majority are estimated to be in the gift of the Government with no clearly established mechanism to ensure that appointments are free from undue political or other influence," the report said.

Paula Clancy, director of Tasc and co-author of the report, said: "The unplanned and ad hoc mushrooming of public bodies combined with the lack of good information about them, is bad for democracy. The very existence of these agencies . . . adds a further layer to the bureaucracy of government."