The reaction to An Bord Snip Nua’s proposed spending cuts in the agriculture, forestry and fishing (AFF) area has been predictably intense. The overall savings proposed are €305 million, out of total voted expenditure of €1,985 million (or €1,655 if EU receipts under the Rural Development Programme which count against this expenditure are excluded), amounting to a reduction of 15.4% on voted expenditure (18.4% on the national contribution to this voted expenditure). Taking all of public expenditure, An Bord Snip Nua identified potential savings of €5.3 billion or 9.3% of relevant expenditure. It therefore seems as if the AFF area will be asked to take a disproportionate share of the overall cuts. However, while I have some quibbles with the details, it is hard to disagree with the overall thrust of the proposals, and indeed I think some expenditure schemes were lucky to survive. I look at the details of the proposals with respect to agriculture in this post.
Category: Uncategorized
The focus of this year’s Patrick MacGill Summer School is the Irish economy. It features an array of excellent speakers.
Webcast archives of each of the sessions are being made available here and RTE has good audio material on its own website including some of the key politicians’ speeches here.
Update: About 900 people crowded into the hall in Glenties Tuesday night to witness an unusually gripping evening of oratory on economic policy, with presentations by Eamonn Gilmore, George Lee and Brian Lenihan.
George Lee’s talk was particularly noteworthy and suprising.
Other presentations at the Summer School include
Colm McCarthy
Peter McLoone
David Begg
Dan Boyle
Karl Whelan
Don Thornhill
Patrick Honohan
I am opening this strand to facilitate discussion about the many recommendations made for reform of the legal system by the McCarthy Report. Whilst there are lively discussions going on here and in many other media concerning proposals for cuts there has been little discussion of the extensive proposals for the legal system beyond a focus on the abolition of the tipstaff posts within the Courts Service and merger of various ombudsman functions. The law pages of neither the Sunday Business Post nor the Irish Times give any mention to the Report. For convenience I list some of the highlights below:
Management of the courts and supporting the Judiciary
Rationalise the network and operations of the District and Circuit Courts
Abolition of Tipstaffs grade
Judicial review of judgements – ‘Courts should be given the necessary powers to correct themselves with the consent of both parties. Furthermore, those involved in the case should not be awarded costs if they insist on Judicial Review without initially engaging with the original court in its efforts to correct its decision.’
Address ‘out-dated practices which are sharply at odds with what is expected throughout other areas of the public and private sectors. In particular, the Group recommends that the Courts should:
• provide for Monday sittings;
• open the Courts for the full year (rather than closing for prolonged periods of time);
• introduce pre-trial hearings to deal with technical matters in advance of jury selection;
• streamline the selection of Juries (for example by providing the Defence an opportunity to object for stated reasons to individuals on a long panel of potential jurors, before jurors are
called to serve); and
• use court real estate more efficiently (e.g. using a court room to hear one case in the morning and one in the afternoon rather than one a day).
The efficiency of the Courts system could be improved by providing prospective judges with judicial training prior to going on the bench and ongoing professional development, by providing the Presidents of the Courts with meaningful powers and functions in the area of discipline and the
issuing of practice directions, by establishing a Judicial Council to address serious disciplinary issues and by strengthening the independent role of the Judicial Appointments Board in the appointment of judges.’
Reduce the number of County Registrars
‘The feasibility of introducing a limited number of short-term non-pensionable law graduate internship placements contracts of 1 to 2 years clerking for a group of judges to assist judges with research should be explored.’
Reduce surplus security personnel at the Four Courts
Review charging system
Introduce a limited means testing system for criminal legal aid
Extend digital audio recording to the Civil Courts
An Garda Síochána
Better co-ordination to reduce time spent by Gardaí in court
Rationalise the Garda station network
Transfer responsibility of immigration control at entry point to INIS
Review of Garda pay and allowances
Regulation and Oversight
Merger of ComReg and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (*corrected 22 July)
Merger of Property Registration Authority (PRA) with Ordnance Survey Ireland and the Valuations Office (*corrected 22 July)
Establishment of an Ombudsman Commission (taking on the role currently undertaken by the Office of the Ombudsman, the Children’s Ombudsman and the Information Commissioner)
Merge the Property Services Regulatory Authority with the Private Residential Tenancies Board
Transfer the disability functions of D/JE&LR to the Office for Mental Health and Disability in the Department of Health & Children
Other
Improve Value for Money in the Coroners Service
Abolish Law Reform Commission
Reallocate the statutory employment and occupational benefits
responsibilities of the Equality Tribunal to the Employment Appeals Tribunal
‘Reduce expenditure on the gender mainstreaming [and integration] and transfer the function to the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment’
Reduce the allocation to equality organisations and projects
Abolish the Office of the Minister for Integration
Staffing levels in the youth detention centres should be reduced
‘Duplication of legal advice – The Group is of the view that other State bodies may be unnecessarily seeking legal advice for the same or similar matters particularly regarding the interpretation of legislation. This duplication leads to wasteful expenditure and the Group concludes that as far as possible public bodies should be able to avail of the expertise of Government legal services, via their parent Department in each
case.’
‘Legal Costs – The Group has noted the practice of different state organisations pursuing legal cases against one another e.g. the Commissioner for Aviation Regulation vs. Aer Rianta. This duplication unnecessarily increases the burden of legal costs borne by the State. The Group proposes that there should be compulsory arbitration of legal disputes involving State bodies. Any State body wishing to resolve a legal dispute with another State body would be required to inform the relevant Minister who would then be responsible for mediating a solution or arranging for other forms of independent mediation. Legislative change should be initiated to implement this proposal if necessary. The Group notes that the revised and updated Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies provides that where a legal dispute involves another State body, every effort should be made to mediate, arbitrate or otherwise before expensive legal costs are incurred and that the Department of Finance should be notified of such legal issues and their costs. ’
‘Distinction between junior and senior counsel – The Group has looked at the difference in the level of legal fees payable to junior and senior counsel. The Government, at its discretion, grants Patents of Precedence at the Bar on the recommendation of an Advisory Committee consisting of the Chief Justice, the President of the High Court, the Attorney General and the Chairman of the Bar Council. The Group is of the view that this distinction is unnecessary and contributes to higher legal costs payable by the State. Other jurisdictions function adequately without this hierarchy of legal professionals. The Group notes that this practice applies across the entire legal industry but considers that the removal of this distinction is unlikely to have a significant negative impact on the legal system.’
An Bord Snip Nua has a number of recommendations in the intertwined areas of energy, environment and transport:
1. End energy, environment and climate awareness programmes
2. Water charges and road pricing
3. Reduce energy subsidies to the price of carbon; abolish said subsidies when the carbon tax is introduced; end subsidies to regional airports and domestic flights
4. Discontinue selected train services
5. Merge water authorities, market regulators, and safety regulators
6. Privatise Bord na Mona and Bus Eireann Expressway
I agree with all of the above.
On 4, I would also end public subsidies to the planned interconnector to Wales. This is a commercial proposition; there are few externalities, it is not a public good, nor is it a natural monopoly.
On 5, Sean Lyons pointed out that the Irish Aviation Authority is a market regulator and should therefore be merged with other market regulators rather than with the Road Safety Authority, the Railway Safety Commission and the Maritime Safety Directory. I confused the Irish Aviation Authority, the safety regulator, with the Commission for Irish Aviation, the market regulator. The safety regulators should all be merged into Safety Ireland. The market regulators should be merged into Competition Ireland.
On 6, I would go further. An Bord Snip Nua argues that state-owned companies should pay higher dividends, but I would sell them at the first opportunity. 2010 may be too soon, but we should be able to get a decent price from 2011 onwards. I would also end the monopoly of Dublin Bus.
An Bord Snip Nua is silent on waste management. While two incinerators are being build, the government is trying to divert future waste away from incineration towards other, more expensive forms of treatment. If the government succeeds, it will (1) destroy capital and (2) increase costs. Arguably, this is not in the budget yet and therefore outside the remit of An Bord Snip Nua, but the investment is measured in hundreds of millions of euros.
ESRI forecasts for 2010 allow me to update the internal/external balance plot first used by Brendan Walsh and myself to describe the lengthy cycle 1975-2001.
The first chart, with data up to 2006, shows the previous big counterclockwise cycle: first the balance of payments goes into deficit (1975-1979); then the correction begins and unemployment rises (1980-85), the balance of payments deficit contracts (1981-87) and moves into surplus (1991-93); finally unemployment comes down again (1993-2000).
Looks like the Irish hare is taking a shorter and sharper curve this time. The balance of payments blow-out (2003-2008) has been much smaller in amplitude and shorter in duration than in the 1970s and 1980s. The rise in unemployment (2007-2010) is much faster than in 1981-86. Sooner or later we’ll get back to the bottom centre of the graph with low unemployment and zero balance of payments.
The first chart shows data up to 2006, the second one joins the dots for 2007-2010 according the the ESRI forecasts published this morning.
(PS: For those who like two-dimensional business cycle graphs, there is a very nice one (plotting rate of change of GDP against its level) for the US in a recent issue of the New York Times. Wish I had a copy of their animation software!)