I apologise at the outset for the absence of the Taoiseach. Members are aware that he has EU Presidency commitments and is travelling these days. On his behalf, I thank the committee for its flexibility and understanding in arranging today's meeting, the purpose of which is to discuss the Estimates for the Department of the Taoiseach and associated offices.
The activities outlined in the Estimates for the Department reflect the central role it plays in advancing the Government's priorities. Today, I will outline to the committee the key objectives and projects which will be progressed during 2004. Work is continuing to secure the restoration of devolved government in Northern Ireland. For this to be achieved, it is essential that all of the parties, particularly those now in a position of leadership in their communities, play their part. The issues are clear. There must be an end to paramilitarism and there must be inclusive government. In the period ahead, both Governments will intensify their contacts with the parties. With the necessary political will, trust and confidence can be restored and a democratic accommodation between Nationalists and Unionists can be secured and sustained.
In addition to providing the necessary support on Northern Ireland generally and underpinning our efforts to secure the objectives outlined, the Department's Northern Ireland division is responsible for a number of subheads in the Estimates before us. The amount of €50,000 in subhead D of the 2004 Vote is a contingency provision to cover costs associated with any meetings of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation which may be convened throughout the year. An allocation of €63,000 is provided in subhead E to fund commemoration initiatives for periods or events for which commemoration is appropriate or proposed from civil society. There is an allocation of €250,000 in subhead L to allow the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings to complete its work.
The European and international affairs division of the Department supports the Taoiseach's representation of Ireland in his roles as a member of the European Council and Head of Government. The division collaborates closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs and other Departments to promote Ireland's interests in EU and international policy formulation. The co-ordination of a successful input and outcome from Ireland's Presidency of the European Union is the central priority of this division in 2004. The Department aims to ensure that Ireland is an effective chair and progresses the wide range of issues on the European agenda, including the successful transition to an enlarged Union. It is also aimed to ensure the effective and efficient conduct of the business of the enlarged Union.
Other key objectives being prioritised include progress in the Intergovernmental Conference to give impetus to the ten year economic reform goals set out at Lisbon in March 2000 and, in the area of external relations, the search for mutual solutions to the many difficult issues confronting us on the world stage. This is a demanding and complex agenda and we seek to work with determination to serve Europe well. We wish to demonstrate that while ours is a small state, we can be effective.
Since its launch in October 2001, the National Forum on Europe has established itself as an independent space where public representatives and civil society can debate the important European issues of the day, their impact on Ireland and its citizens and, in particular, the future of Europe. Its policy of holding regional meetings on a regular basis provides an opportunity for the public to express their views and raise issues of concern with guest speakers and participants at the forum.
The forum has encouraged full participation by all interested parties and promoted a wider public debate and a clearer understanding of the key issues involved in that debate. Its success is evidenced by recent surveys which have shown an increasing awareness of European issues among the public. The current sense of all the parties participating in the forum is that it continues to provide a valuable service for the body politic and the public, that the issues it is debating are of the utmost importance to Ireland and the future of its citizens and that it is doing a good job. I look forward to the forum continuing to do its work in bringing Europe closer to the citizen. The provision of €1.151 million is the amount sought by the forum to carry out its work in the current year.
The economy has performed very well against a difficult international background. Economic growth has been strong, especially compared to other European economies. We have seen inflation fall sharply, unemployment remains low, employment continued to grow last year and the public finances remain on a sustainable path. This clearly shows that the Government's economic strategy is working well.
The economic and social policy division of the Department plays an important role in providing briefings and advice and in adopting a "whole of Government" perspective to policy formulation and implementation. The division works with other Departments and stakeholders in a number of key areas, including the economy, infrastructure, social inclusion, financial services and social partnership. It also works closely with the Central Statistics Office in promoting the use of statistics in evidence-based policy-making.
The National Economic and Social Council provides advice for the Government on the development of the economy and the achievement of social justice. The council continues to be to the forefront in identifying and analysing strategic policy issues and is committed to high quality research analysis. The council is continuing the work on housing policy and will determine the remainder of its work programme for 2004. There is a provision of €749,000 in the 2004 Estimates to fund the council's activities.
The National Economic and Social Forum has a particular mandate to monitor and analyse the implementation of specific measures and programmes, especially those concerned with the achievement of equality and social inclusion. It does so through consideration of reports prepared by teams comprising the social partners, with appropriate expertise and representatives of relevant Departments and agencies and its own secretariat. This focus has resulted in a number of publications that contribute and add value to the Government's approach in addressing these areas. The forum's mandate has been extended to facilitate public consultation on policy matters referred to it by Government from time to time. The NESF, with its four strands of the Oireachtas, employer, trade union and farm organisations, community and voluntary sectors and central and local government and Independents, is uniquely placed to harness the views of a wide range of interests. Uniquely, the Oireachtas is represented on the NESF. This is important since our public representatives have unique insights into the impact of policies and programmes on the lives of people. In the 2004 Estimates €580,000 is provided to fund the forum's work.
The National Centre for Partnership and Performance will continue to focus on supporting change and improving performance, through partnership, in the workplace. The NCPP is concentrating its activities during 2004 on the forum on the workplace of the future. The forum is engaging in in-depth discussion, research and analysis on how workplaces can best adapt to competitive pressures and improve the delivery of services. In addition, the centre will continue its ongoing work in supporting partnership initiatives across many sectors. This includes the development of training materials, models and cases of best practice and creating networks for learning and support. A provision of €1.086 million has been made in the 2004 Estimates to fund the centre's activities. This includes a special provision of €250,000 to fund the forum on the workplace of the future.
The National Economic and Social Development Office comprises the NESC, NESF and NCCP. The National Economic and Social Development Office Bill which has completed Second Stage in the Dáil will put these three bodies on a statutory basis as part of that office. The primary role of NESDO is to add value to the work of its constituent bodies by creating the conditions under which co-operation between them can be maximised, joint projects pursued and the potential for duplication minimised. NESDO promotes the development of a shared vision for realising these goals and will encourage the constituent bodies to maximise their impact through co-operation and co-ordinated effort. Through this process of co-operation, knowledge and ideas can be shared and complementary as well as joint programmes and analysis can be pursued.
An amount of €1.032 million has been provided under subhead M of the Vote for the National Economic and Social Development Office in 2004. This will fund joint work activities and the costs of running the office premises and shared administrative services for the office. This includes a provision of €478,000 for the rent of the premises which houses the four bodies which was previously paid by the OPW.
An allocation of €10.324 million has been made under subhead K to fund the ongoing work of the Moriarty tribunal and to provide for costs estimated at €6.5 million which will arise if the tribunal concludes its work in the current year. There is also a contingency provision of €250,000 under subhead J for any outstanding legal costs that might fall due in respect of the McCracken tribunal.
An allocation of €380,000 has been made for the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution. The committee recently published its report on property rights. It will continue its very valuable work by continuing its study of the constitutional position of people with disabilities.
Funding of €313,000 has been provided under subhead P to promote mutually advantageous co-operation between Ireland and Newfoundland and Labrador through the Ireland Newfoundland Partnership which was established on foot of a memorandum of understanding between the Government of Ireland and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. This function has recently transferred to the Department of the Taoiseach from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, reflecting the widening scope of the work of the partnership which spans co-operation initiatives and activities in a wide range of sectors. Planned activities in 2004 include initiatives in the areas of marine science and engineering, arts, culture, tourism and education.
I am pleased to report continued good progress with modernisation of the public service. The implementation group, chaired by the Secretary General of the Department, continues to co-ordinate, promote and support implementation of a comprehensive modernisation programme.
Sustaining Progress contains a substantial modernisation agenda for the main sectors of the public service which are being progressed. These include more open recruitment procedures, more competitive promotions, an enhanced performance management system and legislation streamlining staff disciplinary processes. In addition, the agreement provides for performance verification groups, PVGs, which have responsibility for verifying progress prior to the award of pay increases under Sustaining Progress.
Progress in other areas of the modernisation agenda includes: the publication of a White Paper on regulatory reform; promotion of the customer charter initiative, including the publication of detailed guidelines; provision of training assistance for Departments; and a booklet on internal customer service. In addition, work is being undertaken on examining the implications of decentralisation for the different elements of the modernisation agenda, as well as the overarching implications for the system of government as a whole.
A provision of €700,000 is made under subhead G to fund the work of the Information Society Commission. The ISC will continue its mandate to contribute to the formulation of Government policy by highlighting the challenges and opportunities presented by information society developments, provision of expert advice, identification of areas for potential international co-operation and monitoring Ireland's performance in its evolution as an information society. The commission will serve for a three year period until the end of 2004.
The Estimates for the Department include an allocation under subhead A8 of €1.589 million which will fund, inter alia, two research scholarships focused on electronic service delivery in government. The information society policy unit in the Department will continue to promote the e-government objective in 2004. We recognise the importance of developing a modern, dynamic information society in Ireland, to which everyone has access. This will open up vast new business and social opportunities and contribute to our development as a knowledge economy.
The e-Cabinet project is a major step in developing the potential of IT to transform how the public sector works. The initiative aims to modernise the Cabinet administrative system. This will involve the electronic creation, distribution and management of Cabinet papers, the use of technologies in direct support of Cabinet meetings, the use of technologies to improve the presentation of information to Cabinet and the creation of new information resources. E-Cabinet will be the first system of its kind in the world and will set up a framework for the secure electronic transmission of documents between all Departments and the Cabinet secretariat. It is expected that the system will be introduced to Cabinet in the summer of this year.
The Central Statistics Office, in its first ever statistics on how information and communications technologies are used in Ireland, has revealed how the primary use of Internet technologies is still e-mail, with the procurement of travel and accommodation second and information and shopping coming in third. Clearly, therefore, content and the use of technology are key to stimulating greater engagement in the information society.
With the further e-inclusion initiatives being taken this year I hope that we can continue to show how technology can make a real difference to people's lives. E-mail and on-line shopping are a good start, but the challenge is to create meaningful and useful content to enable everyone to exploit technology to maximum advantage and to provide the levers of change and advancement that can help people to overcome barriers of personal and economic circumstance. The allocation in this subhead will fund a number of priority areas, including initiatives to assist in mainstreaming ICT use, build the capacity of the community and voluntary sector, provide ICT access, learning and skills and raise awareness.
The total allocation for the Department of €37.585 million is an increase of €11.777 million, or 45%, over the Estimate for 2003, and €12.958 million, or 53%, over the 2003 outturn. The increase reflects mainly the provision for the costs arising if the Moriarty tribunal concludes its work this year, the €1 million for initiatives on e-inclusion, the funding for the forum on the workplace of the future, the special allocation of €1.695 million for EU Presidency costs and €478,000 in rent costs for NESDO, previously paid by the OPW.
I turn now to the other Votes which are the subject of today's meeting. The Central Statistics Office, CSO, is responsible for the collection, processing and dissemination of official statistics on economic and social conditions in Ireland. While the main focus is on the statistical requirements of government, there is a wide community of users nationally, including the social partners, numerous public bodies, business, universities, research institutes and the public. There is also a significant international dimension to the work of the office and the demands resulting from new EU regulations are continually increasing.
In non-census years, the quarterly national household survey continues to be the most important source of information on demographic and social trends. The labour force figures are published within three months of the end of each quarter. The social topics surveyed this year include accidents at work, pensions, disability, organisation of working time, travel to work, equality and home computing. A report on housing was published today and other recent reports include those on life-long learning, child care, educational attainment and voter participation.
The CSO is currently undertaking a census of population pilot test, in preparation for the next census in April 2006. The date for the census pilot test was Sunday, 25 April and information is being collected in 32 urban and rural enumeration areas. It is testing new questions, some changes to existing ones and the mailing back of forms as opposed to having them physically collected by an enumerator.
An important new development in the past year was the start of the EU survey of income and living conditions in June 2003. This will provide statistics needed for national and EU policies, including the national anti-poverty strategy. The CSO is making preparations to conduct a household budget survey in 2005. This survey is conducted every five years and underpins the calculation of the consumer price index.
The National Statistics Board's strategy for statistics from 2003 to 2008 emphasises the role of statistics in supporting evidence-based decision making. An important development in this regard was the publication by the CSO last December of the national progress indicators report, Measuring Ireland's Progress. The office is also working actively to develop the statistical use of administrative records and to support Departments and agencies in the development of their data and statistics strategies. This work will benefit the whole public service by improving information systems and promoting better evidence-based decision-making.
To support the development of statistics, the CSO is continuing to build on its strong IT capability and is in the final stages of implementing its new IT strategy. This will use the latest web-based technologies for processing over 100 surveys and making the results easy to use. The strategy will also help the CSO to respond quickly to new requirements and will take advantage of e-government initiatives as they come on stream. The implementation of a new management information framework in 2004 will support the provision of financial information throughout the organisation and the delegation of budgets to function and line management.
The 2004 Estimate for the Office of the Attorney General is €13.765 million. This provides for the operating costs of the office. Subhead A5 includes funding for the implementation of a new IT plan which is currently under way in conjunction with the Office of the Chief State Solicitor. This involves a number of major projects which will greatly increase the operational efficiency and effectiveness of the office. The sum of €1.593 million is provided by way of a grant-in-aid for the Law Reform Commission.
Vote 13 provides for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Chief State Solicitor. The Estimate for the year ending 31 December 2004 is €29.356 million which represents an increase of €627,000 over the outturn for 2003. Funding is included for the continued implementation of two major IT projects — a new case and records management system and a financial management system — undertaken jointly with the Office of the Attorney General.
The Estimate also provides under subhead B for fees to counsel engaged for litigation and advisory work for the office and in subhead C for general law expenses covering a range of legal expenses such as expert witnesses and stenographers and also for the running costs of the Attorney General's scheme.
The Estimate for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions is €32.122 million. This provides for the salaries and expenses of the director and his staff, fees to counsel engaged by the director to prosecute cases in the various courts and legal costs awarded against the State arising from judicial review and other legal proceedings.
I commend the Estimates to the committee and thank members for their attention.
