MORE ON SPENDING CUTS

It was the most draconian cost-cutting plan in the history of the state – and it’s not surprising that the Government has shied away from it. Last July, economist Colm McCarthy produced the An Bord Snip report detailing 271 cuts in public expenditure to save €5.3 billion. But nine months later, only 32 of the recommendations have been implemented in full and a lengthy examination in the Sunday Tribune reported that a further 89 had been introduced in part.
Excluding the almost €740 million full year savings from social welfare cuts which were agreed before the report was published, the full savings from An Bord Snip are less than €1.2 billion.
The article summarises that the slash-and-burn approach taken by McCarthy was a softening up exercise designed to remind free-spending Government departments of the new realities now in play.