Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 31 January 2024

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Report on National Development Plan: Economic and Social Research Institute

Dr. Alan Barrett:

May I add a point here? When we were undertaking the work, the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform came to us and there was a sort of negotiation. Perhaps that is not the right word. It wanted to clarify exactly what the ESRI could do and could not do. There was a relatively tight timeframe on this. We decided we were not going to get into a sort of project-by-project analysis because there simply was not the scope, at the time, to do it. When we pitched the problem about the issue of capacity constraints and needs on the one hand, and the need to come up with a sort of framework that would make sense on the other hand, that is really the way we approached it. The logic flowing from what we are saying is that projects need to be assessed. CBAs should be done in respect of all projects. Under standard procedures on capital expenditure, CBAs should be done to estimate the costs and benefits of various projects. If projects are being second-guessed, the existing work should be there and we should be looking at the additional-----

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