Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 October 2016
14. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the process and proposed timing for the spending review as announced by him in his budget speech; the proposed involvement of the Oireachtas Committee on Budgetary Oversight; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30934/16]
View answerThe Minister announced on the day of the budget that he was going to conduct a spending review in 2017. I want to tease that out with him. What will it involve? Is it a spending review or an efficiency review? What level of consultation will there be within the House, with organisations outside the House and with his colleagues in Cabinet?
In my statement on the expenditure Estimates on budget day, I announced that a spending review will take place in advance of budget 2018. The exact review will be determined over the coming months but will be informed by the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service paper, Spending Reviews in Ireland: Lessons for the Future. This was published within the expenditure report for 2017. Officials from my Department will engage with the Oireachtas Committee on Budgetary Oversight to discuss the arrangements for this engagement. These arrangements should build further on those put in place for engagement prior to this year's budget.
Since the onset of the crisis that we are looking to emerge from, spending reviews have played an important role in our efforts to restore expenditure policy and to put it on a more sustainable footing. What is crucial for me in this new approach is that we do not look at the increments or additional spending but at the totality of spending. We must look at all of the choices that we are making with all of the resources that are available to us.
I agree that we should look at the totality of spending but I am concerned as to what the Minister is looking at it for. I have made the point about how budget day announcements fail in many cases to meet the need on the ground in various different services such as health, education, local government etc. Are we going to look at that, at how spending gets to services on the ground and at how it makes a difference to people's lives? Will the review be pre-determined or is the Minister going to open up the scope of it for consultation beforehand? I presume the Minister has a savings target in mind. Has he? Is the purpose of the review either to improve and enhance services or to deliver savings? In terms of the spending reviews in Ireland and their lessons for the future, what kind of consultation or involvement will there be within Government and with people who will be affected by this review?
The main way we will deal with the consultation needs within the Oireachtas that the Deputy outlined will be through engagement with the relevant Oireachtas committee. It would appear to me at this stage that the best committee for engaging with this process would be the Committee on Budgetary Oversight. I am open to feedback from colleagues on that. There will be a savings figure that we will look to establish. At this point, I have not established what that figure will be. I am very open to engaging with groups and stakeholders in conducting this process.
On the Deputy's final point about whether it will track the impact on services on the ground, the only way we could do that would be to pick a certain number of particular areas and prioritise those within the approach. If we were to look at the totality of Government spending and its impact on front-line services, we would not complete it inside the time I want. We published some examples on budget day of how this could be done when we looked in particular at the impact of the availability of medical cards and social services to young people to offer a baseline approach as to how this work could be done.
Given that the Minister wants this done for budget 2018 and that he is also going to be carrying out a capital review at the same time, what budget has he set aside within the Department to complete the spending review? Will he be involving outside consultants or does he see it being done completely in-house?
I have not yet set a budget for this work. My anticipation would be that nearly all of it would be done in-house because I am confident that I have the expertise within my own Department to do this work in the way it needs to be done. If there are any particular areas of focus that require external support, I am happy to look at them. However, I believe we will be able to do nearly all of it inside my own Department and within my own Vote. When I have the figure determined for the budget, I will be happy to share it with the Deputy.
