Government departments face return of Troika-style spending controls
Any attempt by ministers to keep Covid-19 funds into next year “will not be entertained” as the Government looks to slash at least €12bn in spending.
Any attempt by ministers to keep Covid-19 funds into next year “will not be entertained” as the Government looks to slash at least €12bn in spending.
Mon, 26 Apr, 2021 - 06:30
Daniel McConnell Political Editor
Troika-style budget controls have been slapped on the biggest government departments such as health, education and social protection as part of a need to cut an estimated €12bn from State spending.
Workers are to begin transitioning back from the €350 pandemic unemployment payment (PUP) to the normal jobseeker’s rate of €203 a week from June, as Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath looks to wean the country off emergency Covid-19 spending.
Updated: 14 Apr 2021, 18:08
IRELAND’S unemployment rate will not recover to pre-pandemic levels until at least 2023, a new Department of Finance report has predicted.
However, Ireland will not see an “austerity budget” for 2022, Public Expenditure Minister Micheal McGrath claimed, as there are “solid grounds for optimism” that the economic recovery will start later this year.
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Finance Minister Paschal DonohoeCredit: PA
The Government yesterday published a Stability Programme Update which outlines the catastrophic damage that Covid-19 has done to the public purse.
The Department of Finance is predicting that Ireland’s public finances will run a deficit of €18.1bn this year and €11.6bn again next year - on top of last year’s €18.4bn in the red because of Covid supports.
TDs and Senators will have to use facial recognition software in order to claim their expenses under confidential proposals seen by the Sunday Independent.
An independent review of the system of recording attendance (SRA) for Oireachtas members - commissioned on foot of allegations that the fobbing-in system was being abused - proposes installing new facial recognition software at Leinster House at a cost of €20,500, noting it is most likely to give the highest level of public confidence .
The review by former Northern Assembly clerk and chief executive Trevor Reaney was commissioned on foot of a number of controversies in late 2019 over TDs missing Dáil votes but being recorded as having fobbed-in at Leinster House in order to claim expenses.
The Bank of Ireland should transfer branches it is planning to close back to local communities, so they can be used as local hubs to operate as post offices; centres for renewing driving licences and tourist-information booths.
Cllr Bernard Moynihan made the call following last week s announcement by the bank s chief executive, Frances McDonagh, that several bank branches in Cork, including those in Kanturk, Millstreet and Mitchelstown, would be shut as part of a programme of nationwide closures. At the same time, the bank announced that an agreement had been reached with An Post to carry out some of the functions that are currently happening in bank branches.
Thirteen years on from the banking collapse of 2008 – with some €40bn in taxpayers’ money gone down the pan – and yet we still have no real concept of governance.