Fergus O'Dowd
Ceist:115 Mr. O'Dowd asked the Minister for Finance the evaluations of public spending programmes which his Department has undertaken during the past 12 months. [21338/02]
Written Answers. - Departmental Expenditure.
I take it that the Deputy is referring to reviews carried out by my Department under the expenditure review initiative, ERI.
The objectives of the ERI are to analyse in a systematic manner what is being achieved by Exchequer spending and to provide a basis on which more informed decisions can be made on priorities within and between programmes. The expenditure reviews are not undertaken centrally by the Department of Finance but are carried out by individual Departments and offices. The process is overseen by a central steering committee chaired by the Secretary General, Department of Finance.
My Department carries out its own expenditure reviews under the ERI. Its expenditure review plan for 2002 includes review of three programmes in the Department's Vote. These programmes are the Institute of Public Administration, the change management fund and the payments to the promoters of certain charitable lotteries. Work is under way on these reviews and they will be completed by April 2003, in accordance with the timeframe for the ERI, 2002-2004.
A review of the PEACE programme is also under consideration in the context of the mid-term evaluation to be carried out by the special EU programmes body under the requirements of the EU Structural Fund regulations.
The Deputy might also wish to note that the NDP-CSF evaluation unit, an independent unit under the aegis of my Department, completed a number of evaluations of programmes under the national development plan in the past 12 months and has a number of further evaluations under way.