Vol. 564 No. 5
76 Mr. Boyle asked the Minister for Finance further to correspondence sent by him to his Government colleagues on the need to control expenditure in their respective Departments, the Departments in his opinion which are performing well in this duty, and those which are not. [9750/03]
I am satisfied that the improved expenditure monitoring and control arrangements which I announced in the House on 19 November last are being implemented in all Departments and offices. As part of this process I report on the expenditure position to the Government on a monthly basis and the Ministers for Health and Children, Education and Science, Social and Family Affairs and Justice, Equality and Law Reform submit separate reports to the Government on a bi-monthly basis.
The expenditure monitoring and control arrangements required Departments and offices to provide timely information on their monthly spending; improve their risk assessment measures and introduce contingency planning to cater for unforeseen pressures which may emerge as the year progresses; and manage spending on demand-led schemes as effectively as with other spending programmes.
In addition, Government has agreed incentives to improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness. For example, where Departments or offices secure savings as a result of efficiency measures or steps they have taken to curtail a programme, these savings should, as a general rule, be available for other high priority programmes within the same Department or office.
While spending at the end of the first quarter was ahead of the year-on-year increase provided for in the revised estimates, it was behind profiled spending for that period. As I said in my press statement of 2 April, there are some spending pressures emerging but it is the responsibility of each Department to manage within their 2003 allocations. As such, although the percentage increase in departmental spending for the year to date is higher than shown in the Revised Estimates, the level of spending to date is broadly in line with expectations.
