Political patronage still controls the purse strings [IrishTimes]
- Published: 04 May 2010
ANALYSIS: Funding for capital projects like roads and schools should be allocated on the basis of fairness and need, writes JANE SUITER
WHEN BRIAN Cowen stood up on the back of a truck in his constituency after being elected Taoiseach he treated the assembled throng to a song: Ber Cowen he is a TD me boys, Ber Cowen he is a TD. He got Clara a swimming pool because it isn’t by the sea. He was being more revealing about a fault line in our society than he might have realised at the time. It’s not just swimming pools, and Tullamore did get a very fine example a couple of years later, but roads and schools are more examples where political patronage rather than need and fairness predict the destination of much funding.
This type of spending where politicians direct funds home to their constituencies in a bid to win favour, and hence re-election, is present in various forms throughout the world. But we have our own special type in Ireland. Here it is individual, powerful ministers in charge of the purse strings who direct funds to their own constituencies.
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