Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 8 February 2023
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 11 - 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 Government Chief Information Officer (Revised)
Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source
On Vote 14 for the State Laboratory, I noticed that the Minister mentioned in his opening statement that this is to help the laboratory to comply with new EU food safety legislation. Have there been requests for increases in funding to look at how the State Laboratory could be used in different ways? I have seen that in other countries it could sometimes be used if a particular medication has a huge cost for people due to patent issues, for example. Has that been looked at?
My other point is on something that was noted in the briefing document on the State Laboratory. There was an increased level of requests for toxicology and analysis of post-mortem samples for the Coroner Service. I wonder if the Minister would comment on that as well.
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