Mr. Aidan Dunning:

I will confine this brief statement to the Vote, as Mr. O'Keeffe will deal with the Chapter on the broadcasting fund in his opening statement.

As requested by the committee, I have also provided a briefing note updating the position as regards end-2012 expenditure on the Vote. The total gross spend under the Vote in 2011 was €446 million. This was some €49 million below the 2011 budget allocation of €495 million. The gross spend was divided between €323 million, current, and €123 million, capital.

Turning to the sectoral areas, there was expenditure in 2011 of some €17 million on communications, multimedia developments and the information society. This expenditure was primarily on broadband schemes operated by the Department. Some €117 million was spent in the energy sector in 2011. The bulk of this was in respect of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, and was mainly for the implementation of energy efficiency schemes, on which some €98 million was expended in 2011. The schemes funded supported energy efficiency in homes, including for low income families, businesses and the public sector.

In the broadcasting area, expenditure in 2011 was some €246 million. Of this, €182 million was paid in grant aid to RTE in respect of the revenue from the sale of television licences. In addition, grants of €36 million and €14.4 million were provided for TG4 and for the broadcasting fund respectively. Under the natural resources heading, almost €28 million was paid to meet the administration and operational costs of Inland Fisheries Ireland and the Loughs Agency. Also under this heading, some €7.5 million was expended by way of grant in aid to Ordnance Survey Ireland. In addition, €1.4 million was spent on various geoscience initiatives, €2.9 million on a national seabed survey and over €1.9 million on mine rehabilitation.

With regard to the Department's administrative budget, this has been almost halved since 2007. The total spend in this area was €40 million in 2007 and it is now €22.2 million. This is a reduction of 44% over a five-year period. It partly reflects the transfer of some minimal functions, but mostly arises from a reduction in staffing resources in the Department, from 339 at the end of 2007 to 248 at the end of last year, representing a reduction of 91 or 27%. Notwithstanding this, the Department has continued to oversee and implement a wide range of new and existing programmes, undertake certain regulatory functions and provide quality advice across its wide brief.

As indicated previously, I have provided the committee with the Vote outturn figures for 2012 separately. These indicate gross expenditure of €405 million in 2012 or €41 million below the 2011 outturn. The outturn for 2012 also represents a saving of €48 million on the 2012 budget estimate of €453 million. A breakdown by subhead has also been provided.

A key outcome in 2011 was the successful switch-off of the analog TV system on which the Department expended some €2.3 million on an information and advertising campaign. The spectrum released by the analog switch-off was part of the multiband auction conducted by the telecommunications regulator in November 2012. This realised some €855 million for the Exchequer, of which €450 million was paid in 2012, which was some €270 million in excess of the budget provision.

I confirm my Department has an internal audit unit which operates in accordance with a written charter. Its annual plans are approved by me and an independent audit committee. These audits may cover any area of activity involving public funds within the remit of the Department. Internal audit reports are circulated to the Comptroller and Auditor General and representatives of that office meet the committee annually.-