Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A Chathaoirligh, thank you very much indeed. I am joined by personnel from the President's establishment, the Office of the Attorney General, the Central Statistics Office, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Office of the Chief State Solicitor together with staff from my Department. I welcome the opportunity to appear before the select sub-committee as it considers the 2015 Estimates for Votes 1 to 6, inclusive. These Votes are made up as follows: the President's Establishment, €3.444 million; the Department of the Taoiseach, €27.022 million; the Office of the Attorney General, €15.03 million; the Central Statistics Office, €52.836 million; the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, €37.834 million; and the Office of the Chief State Solicitor, €26.966 million. I will describe for the sub-committee the broad areas of work undertaken by the Department of the Taoiseach. I will also briefly outline the proposed Estimate allocations for the President's Establishment, the Office of the Attorney General, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Office of the Chief State Solicitor. As members will be aware, while I have certain responsibilities to the Oireachtas in respect of administrative matters in the legal offices, they operate completely independently of my Department. I will also make a short statement on the Estimates for the Central Statistics Office for which Minister of State, Deputy Paul Kehoe, has delegated responsibility. He is unable to attend because of the death of his father last week.

The Revised Estimate for 2015 for Vote 1 - President's Establishment is €3.444 million. This includes just over €2.3 million for pay and administration, with the balance to fund the centenarians' bounty. Based on last year's figures and recent trends, it is estimated that approximately 400 centenarians will receive the bounty in 2015, although it is impossible to be precise.

A total of €27.022 million has been provided in the Estimates in 2015 for Vote 2 - Department of the Taoiseach. My Department has a current staffing complement of 185. Of my Department's €27 million budget for 2015, €15.8 million is allocated towards pay and administration costs, €4.755 million is allocated towards the Moriarty tribunal third party costs and €2 million is allocated towards the costs of the Fennelly commission of investigation. It should also be noted that my Department's 2015 allocation reflects new areas of responsibility assigned to my Department, including the assignment of three Ministers of State to the policy areas of diaspora affairs, data protection and international financial services, and some additional responsibilities in relation to renewal of the Civil Service. In accordance with the programme for Government, my Department provides a strategic centre to ensure a joined-up approach to the development and implementation of Government policy, including a small office to monitor delivery of the programme for Government across all Departments. As well as a number of executive functions appropriate to the centre of Government, much of this work involves support for meetings of the Government and of Cabinet committees, including the Economic Management Council.

Across all the areas of my Department's responsibility, considerable time and effort goes into answering parliamentary questions, preparing material for use in the Oireachtas, processing freedom of information requests, answering ordinary letters and queries from the public, organising events, preparing speeches and responding to media queries. For example, in 2014 my Department dealt with 58 Government meetings, 76 Cabinet committee meetings, 952 Government memoranda, 20,000 pieces of correspondence, 805 parliamentary questions, and 173 freedom of information requests. Carrying out this work to a consistently high standard is central to my Department's role in serving the Government and the Oireachtas, as well as providing public accountability.

My Department's strategy statement for 2015-2017, which will be published in the coming weeks, reflects the changed context since 2011 and my Department's role in meeting the emerging challenges and opportunities our country faces. I will briefly outline for the sub-committee the progress made by my Department on key priorities in 2014 and indicate where we intend to focus our efforts in 2015.

The Government is determined to continue Ireland's journey towards sustainable economic recovery and is committed to ensuring that the recovery is felt in the daily lives of individuals, families and communities throughout the country. Creating the circumstances for job creation and supporting job seekers in finding work is absolutely central to this task. The Cabinet committee on economic recovery and jobs oversees policies and actions that support job creation and maximise the employment and training opportunities for those who are on the live register.

In January 2015, the Government published the 2015 Action Plan for Jobs which identifies 382 specific actions to be delivered in the year ahead, building on the 1,000 or so delivered since 2012. The Government has set itself an ambitious target for job creation: to grow employment by 40,000 in 2015, in addition to the 80,000 net increase in employment since the beginning of 2012. It has also set a goal of restoring employment to 2.1 million by 2018.

My Department plays a central role in ensuring the implementation of the action plan, including through the Cabinet committee and the quarterly reports on delivery of each action. In parallel, the Pathways to Work strategy aims to ensure that as many as possible of these jobs are filled by people who are on the live register. In October 2014, the Government published the Pathways to Work 2015 document, which has a special focus on long-term and youth unemployment. My Department also helps to ensure that initiatives and opportunities in this area are well-communicated to and understood by employers, job seekers and the wider public. This work will continue throughout 2015.

In May 2014, the Government published its Construction 2020 strategy, which reflects the importance of the construction sector to economic recovery. The primary focus of the strategy is to return the construction sector to sustainable levels to meet housing needs and maximise sustainable employment in the sector. The strategy contains detailed actions to identify and remove obstacles to appropriate development, including in housing, and to ensure that future growth and activity in the sector is sustainable and is underpinned by proper data and proper analysis.

There have been encouraging signs of recovery in the construction sector in recent months, albeit from a very low base. According to the CSO, 7,000 more people were working in the construction sector in the third quarter of 2014 compared with the same period in 2013. Activity in the sector has risen for 16 consecutive months and housing completions increased significantly in 2014, although they still fall far short of housing demand. A new Cabinet committee was established last September to oversee the implementation of Construction 2020. This is to be a priority for 2015.

The IFSC directly employs more than 35,000 people, not only in Dublin but in centres throughout the country. Given the importance of the sector, the Government appointed Deputy Simon Harris as Minister of State with responsibility for international banking, including the IFSC. Deputy Harris is working on preparing a new strategy for the sector, which has been informed by an extensive consultation process over recent months. The strategy will be submitted to Government and published in early March 2015.

There is an ever-increasing presence of digital technology in almost every single facet of modern life. This results in an increase in the generation and use of personal data and, in turn, the need to protect the rights of the user. Coupled with this is the recognition of the importance of the digital sector to our economy and the need to take a whole-of-government approach to data related issues. Ireland needs a data protection regime that is fit for purpose and which can keep pace with technological developments. The Government has therefore given the Minister of State, Deputy Dara Murphy, lead responsibility for data protection issues with a small section in the Department of the Taoiseach to ensure that there is a co-ordinated approach to this important issue.

In September 2014, the Government established a new Cabinet committee on economic infrastructure and climate change. In 2015, the committee will continue its work on the negotiation of the EU 2030 targets to ensure a fair and achievable target for Ireland while also making progress on meeting Ireland's 2020 targets. Once the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill is enacted, the Government will also be engaged in developing national mitigation and adaptation plans. My Department will continue to support me in a strategic programme of international engagement to increase trade and investment and build on the progress that has been made in restoring Ireland's international reputation.

In 2015, the Government will continue to focus on the priority of markets with significant trade and investment potential for Ireland. During the planning and organisation of overseas visits, my Department will aim to prioritise value for money and minimise costs. I attended the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January. While there I hosted an IDA Ireland dinner which was attended by senior executives of several major multinational firms, principally in the high tech and financial services areas. I expect to travel again to the US in March for St Patrick's Day where my focus will be on enhancing our strong economic, political, and business links with the US and progressing issues of concern to the Irish community, including immigration reform and the undocumented Irish.

In July 2014, the Government appointed Deputy Jimmy Deenihan as Minister of State for diaspora affairs at the Department of the Taoiseach and at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The key priority for the Minister of State, Deputy Deenihan, for the end of 2014 and early 2015 has been to conclude the review of Ireland's diaspora policy, which process is drawing close to finalisation. The diaspora policy will put in place a range of actions that will deepen our engagement with members of our diaspora for mutual benefit. The main goal is to build long-term sustainable relationships with diaspora communities around the world. This will include strengthening connections with emigrants and promoting opportunities that are available to them as we continue to grow the economy and create jobs back at home. The policy will also emphasis local activation, building on the lessons of the year of The Gathering in 2013, and recognising the importance of a sense of place and equipping people to act at the county level to reach out to their own communities overseas.

There is an allocation of €1 million in the 2015 budget for my Department for new initiatives and projects for the diaspora. This funding will be used to support local communities to develop relationships with their diaspora and to bring forward other new initiatives and projects which will arise from the forthcoming publication of the diaspora policy. This €1 million is in addition to the €11.595 million which has been allocated to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for the emigrant support programme.

The Cabinet committee on social policy and public service reform oversees reforms across a wide range of areas. In many cases the focus is on ensuring a joined-up response by all Departments to issues such as homelessness, alcohol misuse, older people, people with disabilities and people with mental health issues, as well as reforms in areas such as education. The committee and the Department also support the implementation of the Government's public service reform programme, with actions in areas such as shared services, procurement, and external service delivery.

The Government also published a new public service ICT strategy recently. Each department and sector prepares and reports progress on an integrated reform plan to deliver reforms and make the situation more efficient. An important new development is the Civil Service renewal plan, which was published by the Government in October 2014. The plan sets out a vision for the Civil Service for the future and 25 individual actions to build the capability to meet the needs and the expectations of the Government and the public into the future. For the first time, a Civil Service management board, chaired by the Secretary General of my Department, has been established to implement the plan. A new accountability board, which I will chair, is being established to strengthen accountability and performance across the Civil Service. This reform programme for the Civil Service will be an important aspect of my Department's work in 2015.

Last year the Government also established a Cabinet committee on justice reform which is overseeing major changes to policing in Ireland, including the establishment of the new Garda authority. Delivery of these reforms will be a major focus in 2015.

The Cabinet committee on health continues to meet regularly to oversee the ongoing reform programme in the health service, while also seeking to maintain and improve services in a fiscally constrained environment.

Promoting Ireland's interests in the European Union is a core function of my Department. Our economic well-being is interlinked with that of the wider Union, and throughout 2015 we will continue to focus particular attention on initiatives which support jobs and growth. In this context, we have welcomed the new investment fund and will push for further improvements to the trade and investment environment. This includes full implementation of the Single Market in services and advances in the digital area.

We remain a strong advocate of the transatlantic trade and investment partnership. Improved access to the US market will benefit Irish companies. We hope the negotiations with the US can be concluded before the end of President Obama's term of office. We will also work with partners to take forward the Union's climate policy and energy goals.

Another vital European Union interest for Ireland is keeping the United Kingdom within the Union. That is why the Government has consistently made its position on the EU-UK question clear. We want our closest neighbours across the Irish Sea to remain in the EU. We will be following carefully the evolving debate on the matter in 2015, especially given the impending British general election in May. We will try to help, where we can, to create the conditions where the UK will feel more comfortable within the European Union. My Department will deploy increased resources to deal with all aspects of British-Irish relations, including Northern Ireland and North-South relations, east-west relations and the implications of potential changes to Britain's relationship with the European Union.

Beyond that horizon and further afield, there have been several troubling recent developments within the Union's borders and in our neighbourhood that will require our attention throughout 2015, such as countering terrorism and radicalisation as well as encouraging a peaceful resolution to the situation in Ukraine.

Advancing Ireland's interests in Europe demands an excellent network of strategic alliances, including alliances with the institutions and other member states. I will continue to represent Ireland at regular meetings of the European Council. Earlier this month, I participated in a productive set of meetings with the new Presidents of the European Council and the Commission. At a time of institutional renewal in Europe, we have been developing relations with the new and restructured college of Commissioners and the new European Parliament. We have had ministerial visits to plenary sessions of the European Parliament in Strasbourg in recent months. These have involved meetings with political groups, members of key committees and Irish MEPs. Ministers are required to and continue to maintain high levels of attendance at Council meetings.

We are also deepening our long-term relationship with the European Commission and other institutions by maximising the number of Irish people working there on a permanent and temporary basis. For this reason, the Department's Estimate for 2014 provided €1.2 million towards efforts to increase our presence, including meeting the cost of seconded national experts in EU and international organisations. In 2015, this funding is being increased to €1.6 million to provide for the full-year costs of the posts already filled and to fill several additional posts, including in the OECD. This is an important investment in our future and will increase the understanding of Ireland within those institutions as well as our understanding of the institutions, whose work often impacts significantly at national level. My Department's 2015 Estimates also include an allocation of €250,000 for supporting EU engagement. This money is being spent to support work in primary schools, through the well-known blue star programme, in local community groups, NGOs and others, as well as on work with other stakeholders to build awareness of the EU jobs available to Irish citizens.

An important aspect of the work of the Department is supporting lasting peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland and continuing to enhance and strengthen our relations with Britain. As committee members will be aware, after 11 weeks of intensive negotiations involving significant commitment from both Governments and all parties, the Stormont House Agreement was successfully concluded on 23 December 2014. The agreement sets out a firm foundation for Northern Ireland and its politicians and people to move forward together. The Stormont House Agreement covers a broad range of political, social and economic issues. It sets out a plan for financial and budgetary reform. It proposes a way forward on flags, identity, culture and tradition through the establishment of a commission. It envisages the devolution of responsibility for parades to the Northern Ireland Assembly. It establishes a programme of institutional reform at Stormont and progresses several outstanding aspects from the Good Friday Agreement and the St. Andrews Agreement. It also establishes a new comprehensive framework and structure for dealing with the legacy of the past. These include a new historical investigations unit, an independent commission for information retrieval and an oral history archive. The immediate priority is to progress the implementation of the agreement and ensure that all the institutions and structures are established and commence operating as soon as possible.

Last March, the UK Prime Minister, Mr. Cameron, and I renewed our support for the joint statement agreed between us in March 2012. This sets out plans for closer bilateral engagement on a wide range of areas to increase economic trade and investment between our two countries in addition to our joint commitment to Northern Ireland as well as continued co-operation on EU and global issues. Significant progress continues to be made across a range of areas, supported by the work of the Secretaries General and Permanent Secretaries.

The Government will continue to develop the North-South institutions, with a particular emphasis on economic and infrastructural development in the Border region. The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland will work closely together through the North-South Ministerial Council and beyond on common interests that are beneficial to both parts of the island. I look forward to chairing the next plenary meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council, to be held on 5 June in Dublin Castle. We will discuss new sectoral priorities for co-operation that will contribute to economic renewal in Northern Ireland and, as a consequence, bring benefit to the all-island economy. I look forward to the next British-Irish Council summit as well, which I will host this year in Dublin Castle in June.

The 2015 commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising will take place at the GPO on Easter Sunday, 5 April, while the national day of commemoration ceremony will be held in the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham on Sunday, 12 July. Regional ceremonies mirroring the national day ceremony in Dublin will be organised by the local authorities in Cork, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, Sligo, Mayo and Waterford. It is hoped that members of the Oireachtas who cannot attend the national ceremony in Dublin will attend a ceremony in their area. In addition, work in my Department has started on the 1916 centenary commemoration, which will take place at the GPO on Easter Sunday, 27 March 2016. This event is part of the broad programme of events planned for the decade of commemorations.

The Constitutional Convention completed its work in March 2014. Nine reports were submitted by the convention. The convention is of course independent of Government and reports directly to the Houses of the Oireachtas. The Government has responded to five of the reports and the remaining four are under consideration. The Government will hold two referendums in May on foot of reports from the Constitutional Convention on the age of candidacy for presidential elections and marriage equality. In 2015, my Department will support a proposal by the convention's academic and legal support group for further research, dissemination and communication on the work and impact of the convention. I thank all those who have contributed.

Following the Seanad referendum I met the leaders of the parties and groupings in both Houses in December 2013 to hear their views on how we should proceed with reform. There was agreement that procedural reform of the Seanad should proceed immediately and that the parties and groupings, including the Government, through the Leader of the House, should present their reform proposals to the Seanad Committee on Procedure and Privileges. In February last year, the Government submitted a package of reform measures to the committee. In 2014, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government published the general scheme of a Bill to give effect to the 1979 referendum decision to allow the State to extend the franchise for the election of members of the Seanad by certain universities to other institutions of higher education in the State. Following public consultation on the general scheme, I understand the Minister expects to publish the Bill. In addition following an announcement in the Dáil on 11 November 2014, I established a working group on Seanad reform, chaired by Dr. Maurice Manning. The principal focus of the working group is on possible reforms of the Seanad electoral system within the existing constitutional parameters. The group will also explore ways of reforming Seanad Éireann generally and the manner in which it carries out its business, again within existing constitutional parameters. The group also undertook a consultation process and received numerous submissions from many interested parties. The group has been asked to report to the Government not later than the end of March of this year.

The Moriarty tribunal is currently dealing with applications for third party costs. The sole member has indicated to my Department that the majority of applications for costs have been considered by him and that he hopes to have this process finalised in the near future. To the end of 2014, a total of 49 bills of costs amounting to €10.76 million have been settled for a total of €4.77 million. Settlements in excess of €20,000 are published on the Department's website each quarter.

The Department's Vote also includes a provision of €2 million for the commission of investigation chaired by Mr. Justice Fennelly. This follows my agreement, on foot of a request from the commission, to extend the timeframe for reporting until the end of 2015.

I have outlined some of the priorities my Department will be working to make progress with during the course of this year. The Department seeks to ensure value for money and maximise efficiency in all areas. It will continue to do so in 2015, while adhering to best practice in terms of procurement. The Department actively participates in a number of shared services initiatives. It will continue to exploit the opportunities and efficiencies that such initiatives provide. I thank them all for their service.

Under Vote 3, for 2015 the Office of the Attorney General has a net budget of €15.03 million, which is broken into €13.408 million for the administration subheads, €2.437 million for programme expenditure and an appropriation-in-aid of €815,000. The majority of the administrative expenditure relates to staff salaries, which will cost €11.532 million in 2015. The next largest expenditure is €2.149 million in respect of the Law Reform Commission. This is provided for in subhead A4. Funds for the operation of the commission are channelled through the Vote of the Office of the Attorney General as a grant-in-aid. Since 2008, the office has reduced its gross budget by 18.9%. Measures taken include reductions in expenditure where possible. For example, there has been a reduction of almost 16% in the number of administrative staff. Staff losses have been confined to administrative positions to avoid any interruption of the core work of the office, which is the provision of legal advice and drafting services to its clients. The office is fully engaged in all the public service reform initiatives.

Vote 4 relates to the Central Statistics Office, CSO, which is responsible for the collection, processing and publication of official statistics on economic, social and general conditions in Ireland. While its main focus is on meeting the statistical requirements of the Government, the information it publishes is also used by other public bodies, business, universities, research institutes and the public. There is a significant international dimension to the work of the CSO. The EU institutions, the IMF, the OECD and other international bodies are important users of official statistics. These bodies have a significant role in defining and monitoring standards for the compilation of comparable information. The CSO subscribes to the standards set out in the UN fundamental principles of official statistics and the European statistics code of practice.

The net allocation for the CSO in 2014, which amounted to €39.577 million, included preparatory funding for the 2016 census of population. The net allocation for this year, which amounts to €52.836 million, provides funding for core outputs and for the 2014-15 Irish health survey, the 2014-15 national employment survey, the 2015-16 household budget survey and the 2016 census of population. The CSO is implementing a long-term programme of changes in how it organises household surveys in order that it can meet future information needs as efficiently as possible. The CSO will publish approximately 300 releases and publications in 2015. All of these statistics are published online. Members of the public are increasingly aware of and able to access statistics and indicators on the social, economic and environmental issues which affect their daily lives.

The CSO's statement of strategy gives priority to delivering the core statistics needed for policy, while keeping a strong focus on cost reduction. The CSO continues to meet all its commitments under the public service reform programme. It is implementing a programme of reform and continuous business process improvement in the collection and processing of statistics. It is taking a lead role in developing the Irish statistical system by working closely with other Departments and public bodies to promote a more coherent approach to meeting data needs through the development of a code of practice for the Irish statistical system and the promotion of a national data infrastructure which will support greater usage of administrative data for statistical purposes. Making better use of data throughout the public sector, which is an important part of public service reform, will contribute to more evidence-informed decision-making and better measurement of policy outcomes.

Better co-ordination also contributes to reducing the burden on data providers. Since 2008, the CSO has continued to reduce the response burden placed on Irish enterprises and agricultural holdings by surveys. The response burden barometer for 2013 represented a reduction by 18.9% since it was first measured in 2005. When measured against the peak year of 2008, the response burden barometer had reduced by 32.4% by 2013. The CSO Vote for 2015 provides for a total of 750 staff. This represents an increase over the 2014 figure. This increase relates primarily to the data collection and processing phase of the household budget survey and the preparation for the 2016 census of population.

The Estimate for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, which is set out in Vote 5, is €37.834 million. This provides for the salaries and expenses of the director and her staff, the cost of the local State solicitor service, fees to counsel engaged by the director to prosecute cases in the various courts, and legal costs awarded against the State arising from judicial review and other legal proceedings. The Estimate for 2015 represents an increase of 3%, or almost €1 million, over last year's Estimate. There are two principal factors driving this increase. First, the provision for salaries and wages has increased by €819,000. The majority of this is to fund the extra payroll which will fall in 2015, but there is also provision for the payment of increments and for some extra staff. Second, there has been an increase of €650,000 in the provision made in input A3, fees to counsel. This input provides for the fees paid to barristers who prosecute cases on behalf of the director. The increase is required to deal with a number of lengthy and complex financial trials that are scheduled for 2015.

The 2015 Estimate for the Office of the Chief State Solicitor, which is set out in Vote 6, is €26.966 million. Within the administrative budget, salaries, wages and allowances account for €15.318 million out of a total of €17.626 million. The remaining €2.3 million is attributable to the general running costs of the office. That includes provision for items such as information technology services, training, security, cleaning, utilities and upkeep of offices. A figure of €11.2 million is allocated for the payment of legal fees incurred by the office. This can be broken down into €9.6 million for counsel fees, €1.4 million for general law expenses and €200,000 for the use of external solicitors. Appropriations-in-aid are estimated at €1.86 million and will include legal costs recovered by the office along with the recoupment of the pension levy.

I thank Deputies for their attention and commend these Estimates to the committee.