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Tánaiste Simon Harris counters that public spending reached ‘almost unimaginable’ levels when Labour was in power
Labour has accused the Government of “fictional, fraudulent budgeting” linked to overspending in education, health and other key departments. Party finance spokesman Ged Nash made the allegation as he referred to the millions of euro in overspending highlighted in the recent Comptroller and Auditor General’s report.
However, Tánaiste Simon Harris countered that when Labour was in government there were “levels of public spending that were almost unimaginable”.
“There’s a balance that we’ve got to get right between helping people in the here and now” and accelerating the transition to renewable energy, he said. He also warned against doing anything that “would obviously have any sort of chilling effect on enterprise or investment in our country”, in reference to calls for a tax on wealth. Raising the issue during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil, Nash said his party’s alternative budget was focused on energy, income and child poverty.
He said people across the country were “worried sick about how they will pay the bills this winter” as grocery and energy prices keep rising, and as the Government increases the price of public transport. They would also be angry “at the waste of public money” in the 2025 report of the State’s financial watchdog, Nash said.
But the main reason for overspends in health and other key spending departments was “because this Government and its immediate predecessor have decided to engage in fictional, fraudulent budgeting”. Nash said the Minister for Education last year “made it very clear to the Department of Public Expenditure she was at least €600 million short ” for special education services and transport services.
The department had an “understanding” it would be “back knocking on the door” the following year “and lo and behold €600 million plus was delivered this year”. He said it was “no way to manage an economy” or run public services and “it’s beyond time we had an honest debate in this house about tax and spending and the real challenges that we face as a country”.
Nash said next week’s budget would involve “a little bit here and there for everyone. That’s not sufficient for an economy of this scale, a society with the ambitions that we have. We need an honest debate, and we need honest budgeting. ” The Tánaiste acknowledged every party in the Dáil would explore ways to assist people with cost-of-living challenges.
But he said: “I don’t buy into the idea that every challenge in the public service, here’s another cheque”. Harris said Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill was reforming her department and was an example of “exactly what we should be seeing from Government Ministers”.
He said Carroll MacNeill was telling health staff “we’re willing to negotiate” but “you’re going to reform the way you work”, and “hospitals are actually going to function as busy on a Saturday as they do on a Thursday”.
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