Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 11 July 2019

Public Accounts Committee

Houses of the Oireachtas Commission Appropriation Account 2018

9:00 am

Photo of Alan FarrellAlan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the officials for coming in and I will start by complimenting them. That is probably not a surprise but I wish to compliment the officials on the centenary celebrations of the Oireachtas because they have been exceptionally well performed or pulled off or whatever one calls it. In particular, the Dáil 100 events were well managed and some of the finances for this were expended in 2018. There have been some well-put-together programmes, especially in respect of public engagement. As this is the only opportunity I will most likely get to note that, I think it appropriate to do so.

I will turn to a somewhat less important matter but it is probably as important for the persons who use the bar in this establishment. There has to be some pun thrown into the debate this morning about rats. There was mention of a certain dish being on the menu today. I will put it out there. It would be interesting if the canteen put on ratatouille. Equally, with a slight element of seriousness, I appreciate the building is old and various works have been undertaken. It is a concern to all those individuals who are on the payroll, including this one, in respect of expenditure on pest control and so on. I have a genuine concern about it and I imagine the officials share this because of the proximity of all the services provided by the catering unit and bar and so on. It is not a question but a badly-performed pun on my part.

I will comment on the information and communications technology side of things because it is probably the only really point in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report that is worth discussing. I note that the commission has come in under budget. The commission is consistent in that regard. I understand the commission was significantly under-budget in the previous year - the figure was €13 million. This year the figure is €1 million. I am citing the figures from memory - I read the material yesterday. One thing that jumped out at me was the provision for certain expenditure programmes compared with the actual expenditure. There was a significant disparity. The figure that jumped out was for ICT. There was provision for €14.6 million but the commission spent €22.7 million. I appreciate a great deal of work has been done. My office was reissued with new laptops for the first time since I was elected in 2011 and I thank the commission for that. There was expenditure on software licences and so on. Can Mr. Finnegan be specific about where the overrun came to pass?

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