24 Feb 2021, 11:06
The Budgetary Oversight Committee has published its Final Report on the framework for parliamentary engagement through the course of the budgetary cycle.
The report is the culmination of a significant amount of work undertaken by the Committee in answering an Order of the Dáil from 28 July 2020, which instructed the Committee to consider the overall framework for parliamentary engagement throughout the course of the budgetary cycle.
The Committee has undertaken this work in two phases. In November 2020, it published its Interim Report, setting out the areas which it considered as presenting opportunities in which to strengthen the framework for budgetary scrutiny within the Oireachtas.
The Final Report examines these areas further, following consultations with stakeholders including international parliaments and experts and the submission of evidence from Parliamentary Committees and Ministers of Government Departments.
During this process, the importance of effective budget scrutiny by parliamentarians became very clear. The Committee believes that the proposed actions set out in this report provide a blueprint from which Ireland can become an international exemplar of best practice with regard to budgetary and financial scrutiny.
Committee Chair, Neasa Hourigan TD said: “This Final report represents a strong vision that is required to set out the guiding principles for a new parliamentary budgetary framework. To deliver this, the Committee is of the opinion that budgetary engagement by the Houses of the Oireachtas should be reshaped in a manner that puts parliamentary committees at the heart of the scrutiny, co-ordinated and driven by the Committee on Budgetary Oversight.”
Read the report.