Over €25 Million spent by FF/Greens on reports in just 3 years – O’Mahony

Greens are the biggest wasters of all

The Fianna Fáil/Green Government has splurged €25 million in just three years on commissioning reports and task forces according to information exclusively revealed to Fine Gael Mayo Deputy John O’Mahony.

Deputy O’Mahony received the information through a series of Parliamentary Questions.

“With such a massive black hole in the public finances, it beggars belief that Fianna Fáil and the Greens could spend so much on this type of expenditure.

“This €25 million could have been better spent on 900 Special Needs Assistants, dole payments for 2,500 unemployed people or reinstating much needed sports grants.

“Instead, the Government wasted it. When it comes to task forces, this Government is addicted. As seen this week with the establishment of a meaningless debt ‘expert group’, Fianna Fáil and the Greens would rather set up task forces than directly tackle an issue. As information I received shows, it is the taxpayer that pays for this.

“However, the vast majority of the €25 million spent over the last three years went on reports. Spending this incredible amount of money on reports in just 36 months is a waste of money, paper and resources by all Departments. While of course some reports are necessary, there is no way such an outlandish spend can be justified. All Ministers are culpable but, as the table below shows, some Ministers are far worse than others.

Table Showing ‘Top 5’ Departments for spending on reports and taskforces, 2007-2009

Department 2007 (€) 2008 (€) 2009 (€) Total (€)

Environment 657,668 1,558,094 1,979,783 4,195,545

Foreign Affairs 961,908 1,303,055 340,672 2,605,635

Enterprise 825,180 1,175,247 343,228 2,343,655

Communications Not supplied Not supplied Not supplied 2,381,518

Finance 298,279 4,114 1,917,349 2,219,742

“As the table shows, John Gormley’s Department far outstrips all others when it comes to wasting taxpayers’ cash. In fact, the amount spent by John Gormley on useless reports increases year on year with a massive €2 million spent in 2009. the Greens are the biggest wasters of all with Communications Minister Eamon Ryan also in the ‘top five’. This is pure hypocrisy by the Greens who love to lecture the country on reducing, reusing and recycling and then refuse to practice what they preach.”

Ends

Note: Table Showing the costs of reports and task forces, 2007-2009 sourced from a number of Parliamentary Questions

Department 2007 2008 2009 Total

Finance 298,279 4,114 1,917,349 2,219,742

Enterprise 825,180 1,175,247 343,228 2,343,655

Education 454,160 521,811 326,676 1,302,647

Agriculture 96,309 208,156 80,142 284,607

Communications ( no breakdown for each year just a total for the three years) 2,381,518

Environment 657,668 1,558,094 1,979,783 4,195,545

Defence 50,904 212,238 178,160 441,302

Social 170,670 1,103,254 647,553 1,921,477

Community 1,188,802 386,175 99,539 1,674,516

Arts no breakdown just a total figure was given by the Department 331,709

Foreign Affairs 961,908 1,303,055 340,672 2,605,635

Justice 401,532 325,280 281,042 1,007,854

Transport 448,465 962,498 612,261 2,023,224

Health (figures up till June 2009) 784,410 910,773 16,939 1,712,122

Taoiseach 401,873 198,282 507,617 1,107,772

Total for all Departments 25,553,325