Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 September 2017
54. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the status of the spending review currently taking place; the timeframe for the publishing of the review; the estimated savings to be made; the measures that will be implemented as a result of the review; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40450/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe 2017 Spending Review is the first in a series of rolling, selective reviews, which will cover the totality of Government spending over a three year period to 2019. Work on the Spending Review began in January of this year and concluded in July, when I published the output of the Spending Review alongside the Mid-Year Expenditure Report. The papers prepared for the Spending Review cover a wide range of policy areas and account for a significant proportion of current expenditure. In total, 17 papers were produced by officials in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and other Departments. In addition, an analysis of expenditure trends in key sectors was also published. These papers are available on my Department's website at http://www.per.gov.ie/en/spending-review/
Unlike previous review processes, where the focus was on identifying spending reductions, the aim of this Spending Review process was to examine existing spending by reference to the principles of efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability and impact. This approach allows for systematic examination of existing spending programmes to assess their effectiveness in meeting policy objectives and also to identify scope for re-allocating funding to meet expenditure priorities. In this way, we can keep our focus on the totality of Government expenditure and ensure that we are achieving the best possible value for money for the taxpayer.
The spending review operates as a complementary process to the Budget Estimates process. The Spending Review was undertaken over the first half of the year in order to enable the output of the review in each area to feed into the consideration of expenditure proposals for Estimates 2018. The results of the Spending Review analysis provide a robust evidence base on key expenditure issues to inform ongoing discussions on Estimates proposals in the context of Budget 2018.
