According to comparative international studies, Ireland is bottom of the pile when it comes to how we do our budgets. The Index Of Legislative Budgetary Capacity, 2006 gave Ireland zero out of ten on the amount of time given to parliament to consider a draft budget and zero out of 10 on the amount of information given to parliament to allow it interrogate the proposals. Ireland ranked second from bottom (only South Africa was lower) in index of legislative budgetary capacity in the OECD and other countries (36 countries in total).

Thankfully, some budgetary reform is happening – as with the Ministers and Secretaries Bill, which is being introduced at the behest of our friends in Europe. But the Culture of secrecy and exclusion surrounding Irish budgets hasn’t changed.