Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On Enterprise Ireland, there was quite a high estimate of the potential sales from client companies, but I noticed that figure was not available. Are there areas such as that where we are giving a public input into Departments, especially Enterprise, Trade and Employment, but for commercial sensitivities we are not getting to see either the outputs or outcomes?

Building on the discussion we have just had on inflation, it was inflation in speculative areas such as property and so forth and which we see now in certain areas of hospitality, as the Vice Chairman highlighted, that was the driver, rather than public expenditure. It was, in fact, very much driven by extreme inflation in asset classes and almost a lack of Government regulation rather than others.

A concern I have had in the period since 2008 is that there is a shift towards short-term framing, and this has been slightly acknowledged, where we have seen in the period since a move towards almost quarterly or annual reporting. That is why I have mentioned the semester process a number of times. If the Department officials perhaps do not have thoughts on it for now and nobody is really engaged, perhaps they could follow in up writing. The semester process became very much about the annual indicators and the long-term timeframe was lost. As a result, I believe Europe lost a decade when it should have been investing heavily in the green transition and, indeed, areas like the digital transition. That is one of the reasons we have so much catching up to do now. We lost a decade of long-term benefit because the pressure was so much on the fiscal targets in each quarter or each year.

In that context, are the Department officials confident that, in the way they are approaching this kind of performance assessment now on public services, they are capturing and leaving space for the long-term benefits, impacts and outcomes rather than just the annual figures? We know that some of the very big shifts, such as in climate and social areas or establishing whole new areas of public service, can take two, three or four years for the investment to deliver the return. I ask the officials about monitoring performance in the short-term versus the long-term. Do they feel that has improved? Do they feel it is an ongoing process?

I have specific questions on some of those areas where we are giving financial grants to the private sector. I noticed a couple of areas where some of the data on the impact of those kinds of transfers did not seem to be coming in or to be available.