OPINION:A new approach to drawing up the budget would bring many significant advantages, writes RICHARD BRUTON
IN THIS time of crisis, Ireland needs political renewal. The public is rightly weary of the mock battles and the sound-bite war that often passes for political debate. Growing power in the hands of the Government has relegated the Dáil to a bit role. It is no longer the forum where competing demands on public policy are worked out openly.
The Dáil has been left operating within a zone where fundamental reform is never effectively addressed.
However, in embracing the need for serious political renewal, it would be a serious error to blur the distinction between Government and Opposition. Even seasoned parliamentary commentators have slipped into this habit. It is not the role of Opposition to get Government proposals passed in the Dáil.
In these difficult times, the country needs both a strong Government and a strong Opposition. The Opposition cannot simply be expected to rubber stamp the Government’s choices.
Adversarial scrutiny and accountability will not be abandoned in favour of a phoney consensus. That would just neuter the Dáil. This is most certainly not what the country needs at this time. Those who talk longingly about everyone getting together should ask themselves in what other sector of economic life would they advocate a cartel. All our experience has taught us that cartels produce:
- Conspiracy against the public;
- Shelter for the second rate;
- Compromise with the second best.
Why would we expect it to be any other way in politics?
The roles of Government and Opposition are distinctly different but both serve vital public roles. The Government has access to every possible resource as it makes its decisions. It is given the chance to deliberate, protected from the prying eyes of either public or parliament. It is granted the authority to make decisions. It is given the executive power to implement its decisions.
The Opposition by contrast enjoys no such privileges. Its role is one of scrutiny. It seeks to stress-test the choices made by Government. It brings wider public concerns, perhaps overlooked by Government to bear on the debate.
In the case of budgetary matters, the Government pre-eminence is even more assured. It has the blanket protection of budget secrecy which has been abused (as when decentralisation was introduced without any prior evaluation). Indeed governments have gone further still to conceal the realities underpinning their budgets by:
- Refusing to commit to any targets for the new money they spend;
- Refusing to publish the choices under consideration or the benefits and costs associated;
- Failing to even list the tax breaks which the budget renews for people in privileged positions.
Now is the opportunity to overhaul radically this system of drawing up budgets. I have written to the Minister for Finance asking for his agreement to make significant changes.
How would it work?
It would allow the wider public and the Opposition to tease out the budgetary options. The impact and targets of different options would be published in advance. The costs and benefits of different investments would be ranked. Ill-considered proposals – which dominate the 2009 budget – would be exposed in time.
This new approach would bring many significant advantages. There would be a shared understanding of the nature and scale of our difficulties.
There would be advanced stress-testing of options before firm decisions were committed. Wider political experience would be brought to bear on the choices.
The budget would become a public process with outside experts getting the chance to comment on the choices.
Such a process would break entirely new ground. It would reduce the mystery associated with the budget, which has often served to produce hastily considered decisions that badly backfired.
What this approach would not produce is consensus. It would be both unrealistic and unhelpful to expect political consensus on the choices. Such consensus would produce the lowest common denominator – a fudge at a time when bold decisions are needed.
The opening up of our budgeting procedure at this time would ensure that the debate is about real options. Hopefully it will also be a debate about a decisive break with the policies of the past. These are policies which have been low on reform, low on competition, low on scrutiny, wasteful of resources, soft on failure, oblivious to looming challenges.
Many of us now believe that this change can only be achieved by a regime change. This may not now be on offer. However, as the existing Government steers its course through the present budget, it is equally important that the Opposition parties prepare the ground for radical reforms that an alternative government can offer to the people.
Richard Bruton is Fine Gael spokesman for finance