Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 31 January 2024
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 11 – Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 – Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 – State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - the Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 – Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 – National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 -the Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 – Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (Revised)
Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source
I thank the Minister and welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth. The Minister lists under the main policy achievements the update of the public spending code, which has now been replaced with the infrastructure guidelines that were published before Christmas. I have some concerns about the changes to the oversight of the major capital projects but today I would like to focus on the application of the public sector spending code by individual Departments for capital spending below the €200 million threshold for classification as major capital projects. Page 2 of the recently published infrastructure guidelines states that these recommendations reflect best practice in project development. It is the responsibility of the Accounting Officer of the Department funding the project to ensure these guidelines are adopted. Will the Minister clarify if Departments and Accounting Officers are required to adopt the guidelines or outline how much discretion they have to deviate from the guidelines? For example, could the Minister for housing choose to streamline and simplify the four-stage approval process?
I am trying to clarify where the decision-making power lies. When my colleague, Deputy Eoin Ó Broin, and others raised this with the Minister for housing, he said his hands were tied by the public sector spending code. The infrastructure guidelines published before Christmas are a reformed version of the public sector spending code. When and how will these reforms translate into reforms in individual Departments? When we look at housing and the application of the public spending code for what are not complex projects, what will the implication be in practical terms for the new infrastructure guidelines for the process for delivering housing? For example, we do not need to put forward a business case as to why we need to construct social or affordable housing. Is that within the discretion of the Minister for housing or is it in the Minister, Deputy Donohoe's, Department? I am trying to get clarity about where the responsibilities are.
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