Bringing down the deficit to below the three per cent threshold as required by EU rules is one of the main aims of the next budget, but how does the government plan to do this? The gradual removal of the stimulus package, worked out to help specific firms in trouble following the recession that came about in the wake of the financial crisis, will help. But, apart from this, the government has announced a raft of measures, or, rather, intentions, in its pre-budget document, just published, aimed at cutting unnecessary expenditure.

In its bid to bring about what in financial jargon is called fiscal consolidation, the government plans, for instance, to “critically” scrutinise all public sector expenditure programmes with a view to increasing efficiency and value for money. It is an admiral aim by all accounts but, really, should not this have been an ongoing exercise within the Administration? Is it not blindingly obvious that programmes have to be scrutinised all the time to ensure that there is no over-spending and that the work involved is done according to specifications?

Yet, the government has found it necessary to say: “Government will be pursuing its expenditure-based fiscal consolidation programme by following a number of principles, including aiming at achieving improved efficiency in public spending, reducing waste and ensuring value for money. In this context, government will be considering various measures to achieve these broad objectives.” It is making it sound here as if these principles have been discovered only yesterday, when in fact they are quite basic. Often enough, however, only lip-service is paid to them, and the Administration keeps going its own way, with problems multiplying in the process.

Only a few weeks ago, for instance, it was announced that the VAT Department is owed €64.5 million in arrears. Why has the department allowed the arrears to accumulate to such a degree? There is more to be scandalised at. The government has just launched a follow-up to a scheme launched last September in an effort to recoup a staggering €665 million owed to it in income tax arrears and insurance payments.

The scheme is for those who, according to the way the government has put it, cannot afford to pay overdue income tax and social security contributions. These are being given the chance to settle the outstanding amount within 18 months. Again, why has the amount been allowed to grow, over time, to such a big sum?

At the same time, however, the government is saying in the pre-Budget document that it has intensified its efforts further against tax avoidance and evasion, and fraud in social benefit payments. It has put it this way: “Close monitoring of important sources of government revenue has been reinforced through the strengthening and enhanced coordination of the relevant tax structures. Furthermore, government’s policy to collect tax dues is marked by the renewed vigour with which the collection of revenue arrears is being pursued”.

It is good to know that there is now renewed vigour in the collection of revenue arrears, but whatever happened to the government’s plan to merge the three most important revenue collection sources, the income tax department, the VAT department and Customs and Excise? Strengthening coordination is not exactly the same thing as a merger of the three departments, is it? There is no harm in restating basic rules and principles but, as Benjamin Franklin would have said, well done is better than well said.