Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The Irish Prison Service is formally part of the Department of Justice and Equality but in effect is operated as an executive agency and is funded and accounted for separately through Vote 21. While the Secretary General of the Department is the Accounting Officer for Vote 21, the service is headed operationally by the director general and is administered centrally from headquarters located in Longford town. The Department has policy and legislative responsibility for the service. The 2017 Appropriation Account for Vote 21 records gross expenditure of just under €327 million in the year. As indicated in the figure on screen, more than two thirds of the expenditure related to pay. The remainder relates to maintenance and improvements to the prison estate and equipment purchases, services for prisoners including education provision, and other operating costs. Cash receipts for the year amounted to €13.1 million and comprised mainly retained pension related deductions from staff salaries. There was an underspend of €3.8 million relative to the net Estimate provision. An amount of €2.2 million was carried forward to 2018 under capital carryover provisions, leaving just under €1.6 million for surrender to the Exchequer. I draw attention in the audit report to a material level of procurement in 2017 that was not compliant with procurement rules as disclosed by the Accounting Officer in the statement on internal financial control.