Government spending has climbed rapidly over the past five years and will be almost £16.4 billion this year, £4 billion higher than 1994. This is an increase of more than a third during a time when consumer prices have risen by less than 8.5 per cent.
Why the big increase? Day-today current spending, providing services such as health, education and social welfare takes most of the Exchequer cake - around two thirds of the total this year - and has risen rapidly. It has increased by more than £2.5 billion over the past five years, with £1.2 billion of this accounted for by the rising pay bill.
The rest of the increase in spending is due to extra investment in infrastructure such as roads - supported by EU funds - and by the increasing cost of servicing the national debt.
Have we got value for money from the Budgets of the past five years, delivered by Finance Ministers Charlie McCreevy, Ruairi Quinn and Bertie Ahern? Certainly State investment spending has underpinned economic growth by paying for better roads, grants to industry, and training and education for the workforce.
The value for money from current Government spending is harder to judge. Much of the additional money has gone into people's pockets as extra wages and salaries. This can, of course, pay dividends in improving the quality of Government services - by providing more doctors, nurses or teachers, for example. Many civil servants have done well under the pay arrangements of recent years. The real judge of value for money is what else could have been done with the funds. Could the £20 million being given to the GAA have been better used elsewhere? How come we spend more than £2 billion on education and still have many crumbling primary schools? Is the £2.9 billion which goes to health allocated to the best effect, when public patients must still endure long-waiting lists?
As the race for State resources hots up in the years ahead - as it will with fewer EU funds available and growth bound to slow down - the question of value for money from State funds will become even more pressing.
