A LITTLE-NOTICED SECTION of the Programme for Government (PfG) may help to pave the way for greater visibility on how different parts of the country receive funding for major projects.

That’s according to one researcher who has been lobbying for greater oversight of politicians’ influence on capital funding for projects ranging from motorways to urban regeneration projects, hospitals and schools.

For the first time, the Programme for Government has a section which proposes detailing the breakdown of how much money is going where in each government department.

“The last government spent €44 billion across five Budgets on capital projects,” Ray Griffin, a strategic management lecturer, told The Journal. ”We can’t see the data on that but of the data we can see, Dublin gets between 55 and 65%, with only 30% of the population.

“Cork does okay but – and I’m not saying Cork doesn’t deserve this – nowhere else of a similar size was getting it like Cork was in the last government.”

Compared to other regions, he believes “the flow of money into Cork was obscene”, noting the Dunkettle Interchange, Cork University Hospital and Cork Airport as benefiting to the combined tune of hundreds of millions of euro.

Ray Griffin appearing before TDs in the Oireachtas last year. Oireachtas Oireachtas

The policy is partly driven by a sense in some quarters that senior ministers sitting at the Cabinet see their own backyards benefit much more than others.

There is a government-stamped capital spending tracker, but Griffin said this is “limited” due to only capturing “roughly half” of the total spend.

While capital spending is audited by the Comptroller and General, the total spend is not collected anywhere, Griffin argued.

At present, Griffin said, to find out the true amount of capital funding you have to “search ministers’ Twitter feeds for scraps of information”, but it is “not possible to definitively identify” the total spend.

Even with this, Griffin believes the capital tracker still demonstrates Dublin and Cork receive an at times “disproportionate” share.

Inclusion in the Programme for Government

According to the Programme for Government, the new coalition is looking at “greater transparency and oversight” on department spending on capital projects.

This short section says the Government wants to deliver “necessary improvements in how government departments report capital spending”, with the potential for “statutory reporting obligations” on each department of the state.

Griffin, who lectures at the South East Technological University and co-authors the South East Economic Monitor, which documents the region’s attempts to recover from the recession, has presented at several Oireachtas committees across previous Dáil terms, including last year when he spoke on behalf of legislation seeking similar reporting on capital spending.

The bill was proposed by the now former Waterford Independent TD Matt Shanahan but never progressed beyond committee.

Under that legislation, the final figure for a project would be published five years after the project has completed, partly to avoid an impact on contract tendering.

Griffin views the PfG item – understood to have been included by Regional Independents during Government formation – as a “step towards cleaning up the system and weakening the influence of politicians” on some major funding decisions.

Instead, Griffin would like to see a formula for allocating capital spending across different regions to ensure a “more equitable” distribution.

Describing the current method in scathing terms, he said “the Cabinet structure” was based on a “klepto-constituency model”.

“The current system works for major parties and senior politicians, who benefit from the status quo,” he added.

‘Putting manners’ on future governments

While he expects resistance, Griffin believes that the “very act of having the data being public will put manners” on future governments.

Griffin also warned that the perceived inequality of spending feeds a view that leads to a distrust of the political system and risks “a revenge of the places that don’t matter” in years to come.

Overall, Griffin said there can be an “ugliness to the speed” of some ministers’ endowment of their local constituencies.

“The model is that they have to do it quickly before they lose power – they never know when they’re going to get thrown off the donkey,” Griffin added.

Department response

When contacted, the Department of Public Expenditure argued that there is “substantial information made publicly available” and that any capital expendture is used as approved by the Oireachtas.

The department said it had “made enhancements” last year in a bid to improve the reporting on capital spending for the delivery of projects.

“In the annual appropriation account of Government Departments, details of all major capital projects and Public Private Partnership projects, where the project value exceeds €10,000,000, are separately disclosed,” a spokesperson said.

“Where the reported commitment level or projected project cost has varied by more than €500,000 compared with the previous year, the reason for the movement are also explained.”