Not so long ago, comparing an Irish Government proposal with the grim excesses of the Trump administration would have been enough to send political leaders into a panic.
Yet when Ruth Coppinger likened Jack Chambers’s plan to audit public spending to Elon Musk’s DOGE experiment, the comparison barely caused a stir.
“He’s setting up this public spending efficiency taskforce that will monitor on a daily basis and scrutinise day-to-day spending to achieve greater efficiencies,” Coppinger told the Dáil, as though she were delivering an indictment.
The lamentable ‘hugging grandma’ controversy has shone a light on NGO spending
The news that a senior Cabinet minister is interested in value for money was hardly the devastating accusation Deputy Coppinger may have imagined. The need for tighter oversight of public spending, particularly within the bloated NGO sector, has been made increasingly clear by recent events, including the lamentable ‘hugging grandma’ controversy.
Accountability
More importantly, the public supports this basic principle of accountability – and always has. It is not public sentiment that has changed; rather, official thinking is finally beginning to reflect voters’ concerns and priorities.
A weekend opinion poll merely confirmed a long-established pattern. Respondents once again identified the cost of living, housing, immigration, healthcare, the economy and Government spending as their main concerns.
Far lower on the list were the bien-pensant preoccupations of the progressive agenda: the rise of the far right was a priority for 4% of respondents, the Trump administration in the US for 3%, and Israel’s war on Gaza for 2%.
Elon Musk, who headed the US administration’s DOGE spending cuts
Yet during its first two years, this Government, like its predecessor, remained fixated on these fashionable progressive causes, which too often shaped public debate regardless of what people actually thought.
The focus on Israel became an effective element of official policy. Opposition to Donald Trump and his erratic conduct was exploited by sections of the left with a longstanding hostility towards the US.
Gender ideology was presented as a mainstream priority, while taxpayers’ genuine concerns were aggressively policed. Local communities worried about asylum-seeker accommodation were branded racist.
One TD was even rebuked by a senior minister for allegedly threatening social cohesion after raising an immigration issue in the Dáil.
But as politicians belatedly respond to the real needs of Irish voters, the practice of dismissing any measure that fails to conform to progressive orthodoxies as somehow Trumpian may be coming to an end. Ruth Coppinger may have been playing to her own supporters with her DOGE jibe at the Minister for Public Expenditure, but it sounded particularly discordant after a Budget that increased spending by 6% on the previous year.
Unrest
The suggestion that Ireland endured a hairshirt Budget is almost as absurd as objecting to efforts designed to secure better value from public spending.
With industrial unrest looming, any eventual agreement will come down to money and how much the Government is prepared to pay.
If everyone understands that a deal will ultimately be reached, prolonged negotiations and renewed strike threats suggest an administration aware that the corporate tax windfall cannot provide a sustainable basis for spending, either now or in the future. Haggling over modest pay increases for nurses, teachers and gardaí is not the way to protect the nation’s finances.
When Ruth Coppinger compared Jack Chambers’s intention to audit the spending of public money to Elon Musk’s Doge misadventure, it barely registered
That is why Minister Chambers’s determination to establish a taskforce delivering “specific actions that can deliver better services and greater value for money” must be followed through.
The initiative is being portrayed as a declaration of war on NGOs, which in itself demonstrates how deeply embedded they have become in the public infrastructure.
Their growth should be subjected to rigorous scrutiny on behalf of the people who fund them – namely, you and me.
Tánaiste Simon Harris upset some when he criticised the recent, absurd television adverts featuring grandparents hugging their children. When the Fine Gael leader went on to say that the controversy highlighted the need for greater accountability in NGO spending, supporters of the quangocracy accused him of dog-whistling.
Outrage
We have reached a sorry point when senior politicians cannot discuss value for money without the usual suspects rushing to radio studios in outrage.
Thankfully, the public shows little patience for that sort of nonsense – but that is hardly new.
Antipathy to Donald Trump and his deranged conduct has been capitalised on by elements of the left that have a long-standing hostility towards the US
What is new is the apparent political resolve to confront the sprawling scale of the public sector, of which NGOs represent a substantial part. It is generally accepted that they cost more than €11 billion a year, although even that figure is uncertain – making the minister’s proposed audit all the more urgent.
These organisations range from valuable and essential bodies to the plainly ridiculous. Many are driven by a left-leaning ideology and appear largely unconcerned with the cost and efficiency standards that should govern any organisation.
There is nothing Trumpian or Muskian about asking how many of these bodies justify their cost.
Nor does it represent a lurch to the right by the Government. It is, instead, a move towards the public consensus that spending must be prudent.
