Mr. Niall Egan:

I thank the Chairman and members for the invitation to discuss the Public Service Performance Report 2022 and especially the elements of it related to the performance of the Department of Social Protection. This is the sixth year of publication of the report in its current format by colleagues in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. The report is extensive and provides a high-level overview of performance across all Departments. As committee members will be well aware, the nature of the challenges facing different Departments varies widely, but nonetheless the report provides a common framework to present key statistics pertinent to the domains of the Departments in a clear and concise manner. In addition to its core performance budgeting focus on financial metrics, key output measures and focus on outcomes, the report has expanded in recent years, adding sections on equality budgeting, green budgeting, spending reviews, well-being and the sustainable development goals. Where relevant to the Department, we have tried to address all of these sections in the briefing, which was provided to the committee in advance.

As the Secretary General, Mr. John McKeon, set out in his introduction in our Department's section of the PSPR, 2022 was another eventful and busy year of service delivery for the Department. As Covid-19 pressures receded, departmental staff were faced with huge challenges in mobilising as part of the cross-Government and indeed whole-of-society response to challenges in supporting those arriving in Ireland from Ukraine. Almost €250 million in expenditure was provided to support 80,000 refugees fleeing war in Europe last year. The Department has also been to the fore in responding to the spike in the cost of living that followed from the war in Ukraine. Last year, the Department spent almost €25 billion, processed over 2 million applications and delivered over 85 million individual payments. A key factor in delivering this level of performance is the growth in the Department's digital platforms, with over 7 million transactions delivered through the Department's mywelfare.ieand welfarepartners.iedigital portals in 2022. This level of social protection expenditure was delivered throughout 2022 by the Department's staff via a mixture of weekly, periodic and once-off supports and is a critical social investment that supports people, families and communities and contributes significantly to social cohesion. The Department also continued throughout 2022 on developing policy reforms, as the Chair alluded to, in key areas including pensions, automatic enrolment, and pay-related benefit, to name a few. I acknowledge the hard work of my colleagues throughout the Department and thank them for it, as well that of our partners in supporting millions of people across the country, week in and week out throughout last year. The Department acknowledges we are not perfect and performance is closely monitored by the management team. We take action to redirect resources as necessary to meet challenging performance targets, as is regularly required in such a dynamic and fast-moving environment.

A core objective of the Department, as recognised in the PSPR, is the reduction of poverty. Social transfers continued to perform in reducing the at-risk-of-poverty rate in 2022. The Central Statistics Office, CSO's survey on income and living conditions for 2022 shows social transfers, excluding pensions, performed well in reducing the at-risk-of-poverty rate from 40.1% before social transfers to 13.1%. Ireland remains one of the best-performing EU states in reducing poverty through social transfers. However, in light of the most recent statistics we are of course conscious that we have more work to do in this regard.

Over the years, the Department has continued to work with colleagues in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform through representation on the PSPR steering and expert committees. Additional material has been added to the report, including equality budgeting statistics in the areas of jobless households and in relation to the ratio of paternity and maternity benefit claims. Both of these high-level goals are, thankfully, moving in the right direction in recent years. Work is continuing with officials from the Department working with colleagues in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform in recent weeks to tag budget lines in the Revised Estimate Volumes with both well-being and equality dimensions, which will no doubt facilitate development of further central reports and information dimensions to the PSPR in future. Beyond the PSPR, the Department publishes a range of statistics in its long-standing annual report, annual statistical report and other publications. Another innovation in this space in the Department's quarterly statistical reports, which have been made available online since 2021. These provide a regular quarterly heartbeat for key statistics and is available to all via the Department's website.

The broad overview I have presented of social protection performance in 2022 is developed in detail in the briefing material provided to the committee. There is little doubt but that 2023 has brought continuing challenges for social protection and the Department aims to provide an agile, flexible and collaborative response to those pressures. I am proud the Department has demonstrated its ability and flexibility to effectively support the most vulnerable, as evidenced in the past few years in particular, and it is our aim to continue to do so into the future. I look forward to hearing the committee's views and welcome any questions members have for me or for my colleagues.