Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 19 January 2016
54. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the extent to which public expenditure and reform targets will remain an integral part of economic strategy and to which prudent management in this area will remain beneficial; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1922/16]
View answerMy question is on the extent to which prudent management of the economy is required on an ongoing basis.
The Deputy will recognise the pivotal role played by my Department in successfully delivering on key Government priorities such as securing fiscal stability, sustainable economic growth and social progress. As a result, Ireland was on course to exit the excessive deficit procedure at the end of 2015, with a forecast general Government deficit of close to 1.5% of GDP for 2015. That is what we estimate the outturn figure will be. When one considers that five years ago, we set out on a path to have a deficit of 3%, which many commentators said was unachievable, and that we now have a deficit of half that, it shows the remarkable journey the Irish people have embarked on. It has brought us to a secure position.
The recently published capital plan sets out a €27 billion multi-annual Exchequer capital investment to be made over the next six years. That will lay the foundations of continued and sustained growth.
Public sector reform was a key element of the Government's response to the crisis and continues to be an essential part of the strategy for recovery. Significant progress has been made since the publication of the first public service reform plan. A second public sector reform plan was published in January 2014 which puts a new focus on improved service delivery and achieving better outcomes.
Managing the delivery of public services within budgetary allocations is a key responsibility of each Minister and Department. With Ireland moving to the preventive arm of the Stability and Growth Pact in 2016, it will be essential that every Department prudently manages delivery of services within their voted allocations to maintain the hard-won fiscal stability and support economic progress that is now a real potential for us.
I thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply. I further ask the extent to which he believes it will become possible to deal with the issues that had to be neglected owing to the shortage of finance in recent years? To what extent does he envisage the various headings benefiting from such measures?
That is a good and prescient question, to which there are two components. First, it is incumbent on any Government to live within the Stability and Growth Pact, the legal binding agreement to which the State has signed up and for which the people of Ireland have voted. There are choices within this to examine the fiscal space available in the next few years and to decide on how it should be deployed. That debate will be held during the general election campaign and each party, including each party in government, will have a different view on it. From my perspective, I wish to devote the bulk of the fiscal space available in the next five years to improving public services because despite the interactions I have in this Chamber, there are pressure points that must be addressed, as well as new services the Government would like to add. For example, it started to so do in the area of child care in the last budget, while in the budget before that the Government focused on housing, but it has a lot more to do and this debate must take place during the course of the general election campaign. However, it must all be couched in terms that will ensure the recovery is not put in jeopardy. This imperative becomes all the more real when one considers what is happening economically in the international environment, including China and elsewhere.
I thank the Minister. Does he foresee a situation where specific identifiable targets can be set in the areas to which he has referred that must be addressed henceforth within the scope of the growing economy? He mentioned housing and I presume it also includes health and child care services. To what extent does he perceive specific targets as being necessary and identifiable in the course of that part of the recovery?
Again, there are two answers to that question. The first concerns the fiscal allocation one gives to each Department and what one wishes to do with it. There will be a political debate about that matter because every party will have its own policy platform to put to the people and the make-up of the next Government in a few months time will determine how much money will be deployed in each area of public expenditure or given by way of a tax rebate. There will be a robust debate about that matter. From my perspective - I believe I debated this issue on national television with Deputy Sean Fleming - one issue will be the size of the State and whether people wish to shrink its size and its activities or to expand it. This will be an important debate to have in the context of the next general election.
