Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 26 October 2023
163. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform whether he remains satisfied that levels of public expenditure here are adequately proofed to ensure the best outcome for the Exchequer and taxpayer; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47226/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraAll Irish public bodies are obliged to treat public funds with care, and to ensure that the best possible value for money is obtained whenever public money is being spent or invested.
My Department publishes the Public Financial Procedures manual, which is a comprehensive and practical guide to public financial management. Public Financial Procedures provide the framework of accountability, responsibility and control of all public expenditure. The framework encompasses the duty and responsibility that extends to all stages in the planning, management and delivery of programmes and services to secure value for money in the use of public resources.
The Public Spending Code is the set of rules and procedures that ensure that these standards in respect of value for money for public expenditure are upheld across the Irish public service.
In addition to the rules, procedures, frameworks and guidance issued by my Department to support value for money, my Department takes a leadership role in relation to driving analysis and evidence-informed policy-making across Government Departments. Evaluations of Government expenditure are a vital component of the public expenditure management framework, and are central to ensuring and demonstrating the appropriate use of public money.
The current formal process facilitating official evaluations of Government expenditure is called the Spending Review. Since 2017 a total of 177 formal Spending Review papers have been published, with more Departments routinely assessing key policies and programmes as part of the spending review processes.
The identification and selection of topics, project scoping, analysis, and drafting are all conducted at Department level, with each Department responsible for areas and policy questions that fall within their own remit, and for managing the execution of the analysis and the follow-up policy reforms, where relevant.
My Department has a number of responsibilities in supporting the Spending Review process. These include at the highest level: managing the strategic direction of the overall process, coordinating the Spending Review oversight group, liaising with the analysts participating in the process, tracking the progress of evaluations across Departments, and organising quality assurance groups and publication.
In addition to this my Department directly participates in the process by undertaking research and evaluations of public expenditure. These evaluations consider a wide breadth of issues of strategic importance to my Department.
Finally, my Department indirectly contributes to the evaluation landscape through the leadership of the Irish Governmental Economic and Evaluation Service. Established in 2012, IGEES is a cross-government network of policy-analysts, which is headed by the IGEES Central Unit in my Department. This unit’s remit is to develop the capacity for evidence-informed policy-making across the civil service, including enhancing the ability of Departments to undertake quality evaluations.
