Dinny McGinley
Question:75 Mr. McGinley asked the Minister for Finance his views on whether the public is getting value for the increase in public spending in the past two years. [25615/02]
Written Answers. - Government Expenditure.
Bernard Allen
Question:129 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Finance if he plans to establish a permanent commission to promote better value for money from public spending. [25586/02]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 75 and 129 together.
The increases in public spending over the past two years have led to considerable improvements in public services, particularly in the key priority areas of health, education, social welfare and infrastructure.
There are already a variety of measures in place to assess value for money, including reviews conducted by individual Departments under the expenditure review initiative, value-for-money audits undertaken by the Comptroller and Auditor General and national development plan evaluations. The relevant committees of this House also have the opportunity to examine issues relating to value for money in their scrutiny of Departmental estimates.
I have no plans to establish a permanent commission to promote better value for money. However, I believe there is scope for securing better value for money through more effective control and management of public expenditure.
I have already outlined to the House a number of improvements to the financial management systems which I will be introducing from the beginning of next year: in order to facilitate a more informed assessment of emerging spending trends, I intend to publish the spending profiles which are submitted to my Department at the start of the year; I also intend to publish corresponding information from the Revenue Commissioners on tax profiles for 2003; Ministers and their management advisory committees will be required to manage strictly within the allocations given to them; I will continue to submit monthly expenditure management reports to Government reporting on overall spending and revenue trends; improvements will be made in risk assessment measures and in contingency planning to cater for unforeseen pressures which may emerge as the year progresses; spending on demand-led schemes will be managed effectively, as is required in all other spending programmes; revised arrangements will be introduced for managing capital spending which will provide details of capital projects being initiated during 2003 and planned for the following four years; and finally, the financial management system will provide incentives for Departments to improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness. For example, savings generated during the course of the year as a result of specific policy measures taken by a Minister to curtail or eliminate a scheme-programme, or on foot of specific efficiency measures, should as a general rule be available for other high priority programmes within the same Department.
While these control measures are very important in their own right they are also designed to encourage public service managers to seek out and exploit greater efficiencies. A number of initiatives are already in place which will help put the spotlight on value for money issues. The continuing development of the management information framework will put in place an important tool to enable departments more effectively to monitor and assess value for money aspects of their spending. The mid-term evaluation of the national development plan in 2003 will evaluate all spending under the plan. Proposals are also being developed by my Department to improve policy analysis and evaluation capacity across the civil service and my Department is currently reviewing its guidelines on the appraisal and management of capital expenditure.
The public has a right to see whether it is getting value for money and I am confident that these measures will, over time, improve the evaluation of effectiveness of spending.