Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 8 Jul 1992

Vol. 422 No. 4

Written Answers. - Houses of the Oireachtas Estimate.

Toddy O'Sullivan

Question:

77 Mr. T. O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Finance the reason a sum of £284,000 sought under Subhead A5 of the Estimate for the Houses of the Oireachtas, destined for office machinery and other office supplies, was eliminated from the Estimate by his Department in view of the need to increase and improve the computerisation of the Houses of the Oireachtas because of the short term savings involved; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Minister for Finance (Mr. B. Ahern):

As the Deputy knows all spending Departments' demands for additional resources are considered initially by the Department of Finance and ultimately by Government in the context of the resources available to the Exchequer. The Houses of the Oireachtas are no exception to this process. The demand for office machinery and supplies for the Oireachtas Vote in 1992 was more than £500,000 greater than the 1991 allocation of £1.7 million. Some £250,000 of the increase sought was in fact provided in the 1992 allocation. Apart from minor estimating reductions amounting to some £30,000 the cut was made on the proposed computerisation programme.

There were two main reasons for this. First, in my Department's estimation it seemed improbable that the necessary preparatory work would be completed sufficiently early in 1992 to warrant provision for expenditure at the level proposed in 1992. The Deputy will appreciate that an end of year rush to purchase computer equipment is not conducive to good decision making and there have been severe criticisms of such an approach in the past. Second, I have a responsibility to the taxpayer to be satisfied that all investment proposals, including those for computerisation of certain aspects of the work of the Houses of the Oireachtas, will in practice yield the benefits and the savings claimed. My Department has sought and expects to receive concrete proposals in this respect from officials of the Houses by the middle of this year for the specific purpose of advising on what additional provision for investing in information technology should be made in 1993.