Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 November 2020
477. Deputy Matt Shanahan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his plans to establish oversight and conditionality measures to ensure well managed and effective expenditure of the July 2020 stimulus funding; if this will include stakeholder oversight groups at sectoral levels, with the involvement of trade unions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33583/20]
View answerManaging the delivery of public services within allocations is a key responsibility of each Minister and Department. There are important measures in place at all times to ensure that our budgetary targets are being met. This relates to Covid-19 related expenditure as it does to all other expenditure in the normal course of events. My Department is in regular contact with all other Departments and offices to ensure that expenditure is being managed within the overall fiscal parameters and there is regular reporting to Government on expenditure levels.
As set out in the most recent Fiscal Monitor, published by the Department of Finance, total gross voted expenditure at end-October 2020 was €65,547 million. This is €8,604 million, or 15.1% ahead of profile. It should be noted however, that expenditure profiles for the year were published in February and are based on the expenditure allocations set out in the 2020 Revised Estimates Volume. This means that the impact of additional resources allocated in respect of Covid-19 are not reflected in these profiles. As such, spending can be expected to run significantly ahead of profile for the remainder of the year. Gross voted current expenditure of €60,000 million, is €8,662 million, or 16.9% above profile. Gross voted capital expenditure of €5,547 million, is €58 million, or 1% below profile and up €886 million, or 19% on October 2019.
Additional resources allocated to Departments in respect of Covid-19 for 2020 were reflected in the Pre-Budget Expenditure Update, published on October 6th. This expenditure, as well as additional measures announced as part of Budget 2021 was also reflected in the 2020 expenditure ceiling published in Expenditure Report 2021, published on Budget Day, October 13th . These additional allocations were also set out at a Departmental level in the report, in order to allow for oversight of where additional funds are going. The majority of this additional expenditure has been reflected in 2020 Estimates presented to Dáil Éireann, with the remainder to be presented in the coming weeks.
With regard to Health spending in particular, a Budget Oversight Group was established in 2019 to monitor health spending and act as an early warning mechanism. The Budget Oversight Group is made up of senior representatives from DPER, D/Health and the HSE The overarching purpose of the group is to monitor health current expenditure and staffing within budget allocations and act as an early warning mechanism for any deviations. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, this group meets on a regular basis and the minutes of each meeting are published on the DPER website here: www.gov.ie/en/collection/31f5d3-hbog-finance-subgroup-minutes/.
