Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I think the objective behind this process is to look at what has already been spent. I understand the point Deputy Ó Cuív is making and I do not disagree with it but it is also important that there be a level of engagement between Parliament and the officials with regard to the money that has already been spent. The Deputy is right. Ministers in particular are focused on what is happening next year rather than what happened last year. Even at the level of the management board, as a Minister, it is very hard to look at trying to deliver this year's programme and at what can be put into next year's programme without also focusing on last year's programme, when a different Minister may have been in charge. Parliamentary committees have a responsibility to do that work. That is the objective behind this. I agree with the Deputy on the way some of this is structured. As he will know, we have had a lot of engagement with the Department of Social Protection on that structure. The Departments themselves are constrained. The performance targets should really be set by the parliamentary committees in conjunction with the Department rather than being laid down by the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform. That Department has its own review process but this document is supposed to be constructed and developed for Parliament and yet the rules and how it is presented are being dictated by the public service itself. That is one of the committee's criticisms of the process.