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Government Waste

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  • 11-02-2009 4:06pm
    #1
    scargill
    Registered Users Posts: 1,679 ✭✭✭


    The government is cutting lots of things at the moment - the one that is annoying me at the moment is the cutback in special needs teachers.

    Minister O'Keefe admitted on the news today that he didn't know how much this was going to save.
    I've heard some estimates that it will save less than €2,000,000 a year.
    A drop in the ocean.
    They can rustle up €7,000,000,000 for the banks.

    I have an example of government waste that could be cut straight away, I'd like to hear other people's examples that they have noticed. Perhaps we could then point the government at this thread and let them start making cuts in the wasteful areas instead of things like special needs teachers.

    My example:

    There is a derelict house/castle on the Newbridge road out of Naas called Jigginstown House. 10 years ago it was taken over by FAS for renovation. (The strange thing is that this house was never completed - it was abandoned 150 years ago before completion!)
    FAS moved in, erected a huge amount of scaffolding did about 6 months work and then locked the gate. The scaffolding has been in place for all this time. I would love to know how much the scaffolding hire has cost over those 10 years (all during the building boom!)

    I'm sure there are 1000's of similar examples of waste up and down the country.

    Does anyone know how to find out how much this waste is costing? I'm going to pester local councillors and politicians.

    I know this might have "only" cost a few hundred thousand - but this waste has to stop !

    Any else notice similar waste ? (aside from payoffs for financial regulator, TD salaries, TD expenses & cars, etc!)


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    #2
    P. Breathnach
    Registered Users Posts: 12,089 ✭✭✭✭P. Breathnach


    I think it would serve the public interest if there were good mechanisms for members of the public to draw attention to waste or inefficiency in public expenditure.

    But when I look at the type of discussion we see in this forum and elsewhere, I think there would be a big challenge in filtering out the intemperate rants and the daft ideas.


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    #3
    BroomBurner
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,737 ✭✭✭BroomBurner


    Cowen is right, it takes a Hercules to punish special needs children.


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    #4
    scargill
    Registered Users Posts: 1,679 ✭✭✭scargill


    P. Breathnach wrote: »
    I think it would serve the public interest if there were good mechanisms for members of the public to draw attention to waste or inefficiency in public expenditure.

    But when I look at the type of discussion we see in this forum and elsewhere, I think there would be a big challenge in filtering out the intemperate rants and the daft ideas.

    I agree. I suppose this type of crap should be spotted internally, i.e. the site manager signs off on the costs, his manager signs off on it, county manager signs off on it, etc, etc.

    But as we saw with Rody Molloy's running of FAS - nobody seemed to care what was being spent.

    I know this type of discussion can break down into a rant. On Joe Duffy everyday you can hear arguments such as "How come my son can't get to see a consultant when Cowan drives around in a €150,000 merc ?"

    We all know that Cowan driving around in a ten year old Mondeo isn't going to solve the HSE's problems - but if the goverment are being petty then it is only right that we point out obvious wreckless waste.


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