Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 2 March 2021
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Chief Government Information Officer (Revised)
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source
On Vote 11, concerning the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and his Department, which has a budget of €44.9 million, a staff complement of 161 and a grant to the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, of €3 million for 2021. My question concerns the use of funding and, more importantly, the information that comes back from that type of research.
The Minister will be aware that his colleagues are disputing, or disregarding, the advice of the ESRI on the affordable purchase shared equity loan scheme. In my view, this scheme will push up prices. The Minister's former Secretary General said that developers had lobbied for it because it will push up house prices. This is supported by the ESRI in its analysis to the committee and by concerns raised by the Central Bank and a number of other bodies. How can the Minister confirm that we are getting value for money, when research carried out by the likes of the ESRI points out that what the Minister is doing will push up house prices and saddle future generations with debt? The Minister has decided to ignore the ESRI, the Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, the Central Bank, the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers, IPAV, and most other economists who have offered an opinion on this issue.
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