THE DUST MAY have well and truly settled on the ‘big day’ that was the Budget 2027 announcement, but after the showmanship of the day itself, the cycle of a budget is such that it’s only now we start to see the government’s plans in daylight.

And while Budget 2027 has promised record infrastructure investment, it also has in its ledgers new plans for a taskforce to eliminate waste, the Jack Chambers ‘Doge-style’ spending efficiency taskforce. The danger with these twin tracks is that Ireland could end up saving money on the very capabilities needed to deliver those infrastructure ambitions.

So, how did this happen? Well, there is a peculiarly Irish approach to solving problems in public administration. When something isn’t working, we establish a taskforce. When things aren’t moving quickly enough, we establish another one. And when public spending becomes uncomfortable, we establish a third body to find out where the money is going. I think Budget 2027 may have brought us to an interesting variation on this theme as we now have two taskforces potentially pulling the public sector in opposite directions.

One wants us to build things faster. The other wants us to spend money more efficiently. Both objectives are perfectly reasonable. The difficulty is that the same people, organisations and suppliers are expected to achieve both. And therein lies the problem.

Same challenges, same teams

Budget 2027 provides for €125.6 billion in gross public expenditure, including a record €20.3 billion in capital investment. Housing, water infrastructure, transport, healthcare and defence are all competing for substantial resources. The government is understandably keen to demonstrate that Ireland is investing in its future.

As I have said before, announcing money is not the same as delivering infrastructure. The €20.3 billion capital allocation largely reflects the investment trajectory already established under the National Development Plan. It is not an unexpected windfall that suddenly creates thousands of additional construction workers, engineers or project managers.

And........

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