Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the committee for the opportunity to present the 2023 Estimates for my Department’s group of Votes. I am joined by the Minister of State with responsibility for public procurement and eGovernment, Deputy Ossian Smyth.

The group comprises a significant number of Votes, including Vote 11 - public expenditure, national development plan delivery, and reform; Vote 12 - superannuation and retired allowances, which covers Civil Service pensions; and the Votes for a number of offices under the aegis of my Department, including the State Laboratory, the Public Appointments Service, PAS, the National Shared Services Office, NSSO, the Office of the Ombudsman, the Secret Service, the Office of Government Procurement, OGP, and the Office of the Chief Government Information Officer, OCGIS.

The Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, will address questions relating to the Office of Government Procurement and the Office of the Chief Government Information Officer. I will address questions regarding the other Votes.

Officials from my Department and the bodies under the Department’s remit have played a central role in responding to the challenges of the cost-of-living crisis. I thank all who have been involved for their collective efforts in this regard.

In an overall context, the 2023 total gross allocation for my Department's group of Votes, comprising nine distinct Votes, shows an increase of 3.3% on the 2022 allocation. The overall gross figure for 2023 is approximately €1,053.5 million compared with €1,020 million in 2022. This is driven by an increased Estimate provision to Vote 12, targeted and minor increases to enable the delivery of essential services and, finally, to meet the additional salary costs associated with the extended Building Momentum public service pay agreement.

I will say a word about each individual Vote and provide a little more detail. My Department has a wide range of objectives, as set out in its Statement of Strategy 2021 to 2023. The Department’s mission is to serve the public interest through sound governance of public expenditure and by leading and enabling reform across the civil and public service.

In announcing the nomination of members of the Government in the Dáil on 17 December last year, the Taoiseach stated that the title of the Department would be changed to the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. The relevant order came into operation on 1 February 2023. The Department will develop, and submit for my approval, a new statement of strategy within six months. I will be happy to hear the views of the committee on the priorities for the next strategy.

The net allocation for the Department’s Vote 11 has increased by €4.8 million in the 2023 Estimate. The main driver of this increase is an increased pay allocation provided for in the context of the extension of the Building Momentum pay agreement. The pay allocation also reflects a small number of additional posts for the staffing of the new Brexit adjustment reserve and the national recovery and resilience plan units. In non-pay areas, there is an increase in the grant to Transparency International in order to meet Ireland's obligations under the whistleblowing directive and the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Act 2022; an increase in the grant to the Economic Social Research Institute, ESRI; and an increase in the regional assemblies technical assistance grant.

I draw the attention of the committee to the fact that there is a single programme for the Department in 2023 in place of the two programmes in operation last year. This is due to the fact that in 2022 the Department completed a strategic review of its operating model. The Department has since implemented a significant divisional reorganisation and has also set out a number of new ways of working as an organisation. This has resulted in the single programme for the Vote, including working in a more integrated way, focusing on strategic long-term policy, prioritising the climate agenda and driving digital delivery.

The remodelled Department aims to reinforce the synergies across the various strands of its responsibilities, whether they concern public expenditure, public service management and development, or the promotion of transformation and innovation across the public service. The single programme better reflects the activities of the Department, although it does mean there are some challenges when seeking to directly compare the 2023 and 2022 Estimates. The Department’s name reflects a renewed determination of the Government to roll out infrastructure delivery as quickly and efficiently as possible. As Minister, I oversee the process for setting the overall capital allocations across government.

As members know, the national development plan, NDP, was published in October 2021, providing a detailed and positive vision for Ireland over the next decade. It sets out a range of actions to strengthen infrastructure delivery, maximise value for money and ensure, to the greatest extent possible, that projects are delivered on time, on budget and with the benefits targeted at the outset. In 2023, over €12 billion will be made available from the Exchequer for investment in such projects. Reflecting the changed name of my Department, I am currently examining the support structures and levers available across government in order to maximise the delivery of housing, schools, hospitals, roads and public transport.

I will move to the other Votes. Vote 12, superannuation and retired allowances, primarily provides for pension and retirement lump sum costs for civil servants, including prison officers, and pension payments for dependants. The Revised Estimate I am proposing represents an increase of €21 million, bringing the allocation up to €807.6 million, which is 3% higher than the 2022 gross Estimate. This reflects a higher number of pensioners on the fortnightly pension payroll. Other bodies under the aegis of the Department provide important services to large numbers of clients across the civil and public service.

I have provided for a modest increase to Vote 14, the State Laboratory, to allow the laboratory to comply with new EU food safety legislation for analysis relating to food safety; respond to an increased level of requests for toxicology analysis of post-mortem samples for the Coroner Service; and maintain ICT capability to meet the requirements of the 2021 public sector cyber security baseline standards.

For Vote 17, Public Appointments Service, there has been a 6% increase in allocation overall. This will cover the cost of implementing the Building Momentum pay increases for the year. The capital allocation has increased by 8% for a project to replace the recruitment IT system which is scheduled to go to market in the year.

Vote 18 is for the National Shared Services Office. It has played an important role in the reform of public services in recent years through the delivery of HR services and payroll services to clients across the civil and public service. It is leading its largest transformation programme to date, the financial management shared services programme. This went live to eight clients in 2022. The 2023 allocation will enable the continued provision of HR services, payroll services and finance shared services, and also enable the office to progress the further roll-out of financial shared services.

Vote 19 refers to the Office of the Ombudsman. It will allow the various constituent offices to deal with their respective workloads as well as providing for the set-up of the new office of the protected disclosures commission. It will enable continued investment in ICT modernisation, which will support the office to meet the challenges of delivering essential services to the public.

Vote 39 refers to the Office of Government Procurement. This is a key element of our public service reform agenda. Procurement of goods, services and works costs the State €18.5 billion every year. It is essential, therefore, that the public service operates in a co-ordinated and efficient manner to allow professional, sustainable and more transparent public procurement. Some of the main initiatives involve working across the public service to increase the use of centralised buying arrangements; supporting NDP delivery by further developing the competencies of public service bodies in commercial aspects of planning, procurement and contract management; further developing and implementing a medium-term strategy for construction procurement, including through the capital works management framework; further developing the overarching policy framework for public procurement in Ireland, including promoting social and green environmental considerations; supporting Future Jobs Ireland and the climate action plan through focused initiatives in strategic procurement, including the incorporation of social and environmental considerations, in line with the programme for Government; and continuing to enhance SME access to public procurement.

Vote 43 is for the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer. This drives the Government’s digital agenda across the public service. Working collaboratively, it develops and delivers public service digital platforms, making Ireland an exemplar in the delivery of high-quality digital public services. In addition, it provides a suite of common applications, services and supports to Government Departments and agencies under its build to share initiative. The OGCIO is in the process of engaging with prospective client public bodies that seek to on-board during 2023. The OGCIO was established in 2020 with an Estimate of €21.7 million in net terms, which has risen to €43.3 million in 2022. The office is financed from the central Exchequer and Exchequer-neutral transfers from other public bodies, which amounted to €1.2 million in 2022, to meet the growing internal demand for its services, while ensuring that citizen-facing activities continued to expand. The OGCIO was awarded €23.5 million over two years, €18.5 million in 2022 and €4.5 million in 2023, via the European Union recovery and resilience programme, to develop a national low latency platform that will enable all State bodies to avail of the benefits that 5G and other technologies offer in supporting the provision of high quality digital services.

I am happy to present the 2023 Estimates for my Department’s group, approval of which will allow the individual Votes to continue to meet their responsibilities and deliver essential services. The Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, and I will answer any questions members may have.