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)
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source
It is a really good question. A significant cause is the answer. I will just summarise it really quickly. First, if input costs are going up it puts huge pressure on output costs to go up. As the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, touched on earlier, there is the difference between the price of wood or concrete going up and what that means then to the cost of delivering a building. One, inflation in one part of the supply chain has a huge effect on where we are later on, in the supply chain. Two, the risk is always there that if an assumption or sentiment is created that prices are going to go up further in the future, it can play a role then in an expectation of higher prices within the economy, and some may take advantage of it. I am just saying that is a risk. I am not saying I have evidence of that happening now. I do not but I think it is a risk for the future. That is why the work the Minister of State and our procurement services are doing is so incredibly important, and it is why competition in our procurement processes are so important.
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