Culture, budgeting and planning in the Department of Finance

This article considers the contribution of the Department of Finance from the late 1950s to the turn of the millennium. It revisits long-standing cultural and institutional issues that former officials and academics raised in the period, particularly focusing on the budgetary system and its weaknesses. It examines the limitations of the department’s foray into economic planning, arguing that its potential was never fully realised. The article argues that plans, rather than budgets, were a far more appropriate mechanism for setting economic policy, and that they could have helped mitigate the influence of party politics. It concludes that planning will become even more paramount in the twenty-first century, as Ireland grapples with major global headwinds.