Committee of Public Accounts says C&AG’s 2020 Annual Report highlights areas for further examination

Deputy Stanley said: “As Covid-19 has dominated the landscape in the last two years, the Government’s expenditure in response to the pandemic is worthy of further examination.  The Committee will consider early engagements with the relevant government departments with high levels of Covid-19 expenditure.

“The expenditure that we will be examining will include costs incurred on support schemes and costs incurred as a direct result of our response to the pandemic to the end of February 2021. We will be looking to ensure lessons are learned from this and stronger and more robust procedures are put in place around Exchequer funding in the future.”

Deputy Stanley continued: “The C&AG highlighted the increased expenditure of €10 billion within the Department of Social Protection during 2020. While the majority of this relates to the establishment of four new schemes introduced to provide supports to people whose income was adversely affected by public health restrictions imposed to reduce the impact of the pandemic, the Committee will review these chapters to ensure the appropriate checks and balances were completed.”

The expenditure in relation to the Galway City’s term as European City of Culture 2020 will also come under examination. To the end of 2020, the Exchequer provided 61% of the funding for the European City of Culture, which was contrary to a government decision that Exchequer funding would not exceed 50%. When local authority funding is included, the total public funding portion rises to 87%.

Deputy Stanley said: “The C&AG also highlighted wastage of public money associated with night vision capability within the Irish Coast Guard. While the Committee acknowledges the potential benefits of night vision capability for Search and Rescue operations, significant payments were made as far back as 2013, and the planned capability has not yet been delivered across the service.”

In relation to the accounts of government departments and offices, the C&AG identified four votes – An Garda Síochána, Prisons, Social Protection, and Children – with non-compliant procurement in excess of €5 million, and the Committee will continue to hold bodies to account for this expenditure, he said.

Deputy Stanley concluded: “PAC will work to examine all the matters referred to by the C&AG in his annual report, especially the 17 chapters highlighted. The scheduling of these meetings on the annual report will be discussed at our meeting on Thursday, October 7.”

PAC is a standing committee of Dáil Éireann which focuses on ensuring public services are run efficiently and achieve value for money.