PAC to examine Department of Education and Skills accounts

The agenda for tomorrow’s meeting is:

Public Accounts CR3, LH 2000 9 a.m.
AGENDA: (i) Business of the Committee;
(ii) 9 a.m. Appropriation Accounts 2015
Vote 26: Education and Skills [Officials from the Department of Education and Skills]

Committee Chairman Seán Fleming said: “Tomorrow we will examine the 2015 appropriation accounts of the Department of Education and Skills. Total gross expenditure amounted to €8.37 billion in 2015. The Department was voted a supplementary estimate of €175 million towards the end of 2015.

“Among the issues we will discuss tomorrow is the student support and related expenses. The original allocation of €331.7 million was increased by a supplementary estimate of €78 million to €409.7 million and the final outturn was €414 million. The official explanation is that this arose mainly due to the changes introduced as a result of Budget 2015, rising demographics and efficiencies achieved in processing and payment of student grants in the 2015/16 academic year. Given the significant increase in expenditure, the Committee will be keen for the Department to expand on this explanation given, in particular how rising demographics affected the outturn. We will also want to know the nature of the efficiencies achieved and their financial impact on the processing and payment of student grants in the 2015/16 academic year.

“The original estimate for building equipment and furnishings of primary and post-primary schools of €468 million was increased by a supplementary estimate of €50 million to €518 million. The final outturn was €524 million. The explanation given was that the supplementary allocation was used to fund summer works projects not originally anticipated under the Summer Works Scheme. The Committee will want to ascertain how the budget for the scheme is determined and why the additional works were not originally anticipated.

“Other issues of interest are severance and redundancy payments, administrative staff overpayments, supplementary pension overpayments and teacher/non-teacher and retired personnel overpayments.”
This meeting will start in Committee room 3 at 9am on Thursday, 23 March 2017. Committee proceedings can be viewed live here.

Committee proceedings can also be viewed on the move, through the Houses of the Oireachtas Smartphone App, available for Apple and Android devices.