Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 27 September 2012

Public Accounts Committee

Business of Committee

10:00 am

Photo of John McGuinnessJohn McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Item No. 1 is the minutes of the last meeting. Are they agreed to? Agreed.

Two matters arise from the minutes. One relates to the invitation from the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Joe Costello, to the committee to visit a country to examine the expenditure of development aid. The committee agreed that it would send a delegation later this year. The original suggestion was that we send a delegation to Ethiopia. However, having examined requirements with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, it has now been suggested Mozambique would be a more appropriate country to examine for the following reasons: it is the subject of Ireland’s largest bilateral aid programme, included in which is general government support, which is not the case in the case of Ethiopia. A wide range of supports are also being provided in Mozambique. What we want to ensure is that the aid programme, the figure for which was €657 million in 2011, is effective in the service it delivers to programme countries and that all the systems in place to channel the money to meet the cost of front-line services are efficient. To that end, the delegation will be able to follow the money trail at first hand and judge the impact of programmes on the ground by visiting projects in some of the poorest areas of the world. That is the thrust of the visit to which we have agreed. I have asked the clerk to work with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to put the programme together.

The second item arising from the minutes is a review of public sector allowances. We must agree on how we can proceed in the examination. At last week’s meeting we agreed that we would examine the payment of allowances. To that end, the clerk wrote to all Accounting Officers seeking the details of such payments. They were informed that it was the intent of the committee that there would be an appropriate follow-up by it on the issue by way of public hearings. The committee is aware that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, is due to brief it on Thursday, 11 October. The briefing will form the commencement of the review. To date, 800 business cases on allowances have been submitted to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, the majority of which have argued for the maintenance of the allowances. We will commence that arrangement after our meeting with the Minister.

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