Mr. Kenneth Jordan:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to attend today and to present this opening statement on behalf of the Department of Rural and Community Development. The Cathaoirleach has introduced my colleagues.

The Public Service Performance Report was published on 17 June and provides metrics and information for all Vote groups. This material is compiled by the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery, and Reform, working with colleagues in each line Department. As the committee is aware, the focus of the report is on giving a high-level overview of the work of the Department and the progress in meeting targets across our policy areas.

With regard to Programme A, rural development, regional affairs, and the islands, the metrics focus on the major capital grant schemes funded by the Department, including LEADER; the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund, RRDF, the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme, ORIS, and the town and village renewal scheme, TVRS. These schemes had a combined spend of almost €130 million in 2023.

On Programme B, community development, the metrics mostly focus on the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, and the community services programme, CSP, which are our main social inclusion schemes with a combined spend of more than €115 million in 2023.

Programme C relates to the Charities Regulatory Authority and the metrics relate to the number of charities registered, the number deregistered and the number of annual reports received from charities.

The report outlines continued strong expenditure by the Department, with an outturn of €417 million across all programme areas for 2023. Despite this, it is clear from the report that the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund did not achieve the level of project completion targeted for the year. The larger projects being delivered by the RRDF continued to see the impacts of the pandemic, along with impacts from inflation and supply chain issues throughout the year. However, while the performance relative to targets for the ORIS and the TVRS appear low given the metrics, in fact both had a strong year, with almost €13 million spent by the Department on the ORIS and almost €23 million spent on town and village renewal. The metrics also show the LEADER programme very much delivering in line with plans. This reflects the fact that LEADER is a well-established programme with a strong pipeline of projects drawing down funding. The targets relating to the CSP and SICAP also show strong performance in the year. SICAP activity has increased given the supports provided to new arrivals, including Ukrainians and international protection applicants, with additional funding of €10 million provided to support this element of the programme.

As I know was discussed here last year, the Revised Estimates Volume provides a much wider set of metrics on the performance of the Department. However, this is provided late in the year. Following discussions at the committee last year, the 2023 annual report for the Department will provide these metrics as an appendix. These will be published within the next two to three weeks. It is also important to mention that, through the framework of the Revised Estimates process, the Department actively contributes to cross-Government work on equality budgeting, with equality budgeting metrics for four funding schemes in the Revised Estimates, namely, LEADER, SICAP, the CSP and the senior alert scheme. We have also provided inputs other initiatives such as green budgeting.

The Department continues to place a strong focus on measuring our performance and the impact of our schemes. This includes metrics such as those in the report being discussed today but also ensuring we evaluate our schemes and understand the impact of projects and schemes through case study approaches. I look forward to the conversation today on the report and I hope we can address any questions that might arise.