Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I have a number of questions to put to the Minister. Looking at the big picture and the structure of how information is presented to us, it is an atypical structure which is not programme based. That makes it harder to analyse it and go through this. There have been recommendations for reform, going back to 2008 and the Considine report, of how the Department presents the Revised Estimates. The Parliamentary Budget Office notes the absence of a programme Vote makes it harder for us to analyse how HSE funding is spent because there is not a direct link between the specific output and the targets. The Department said in 2014 it was working towards programme budgeting and the process would require some time. The Parliamentary Budget Office notes the design of the Estimates hampers effective Dáil scrutiny of money spent on public services. That is a concern. Can the Minister provide a definite timeline for the full implementation of programme budgeting?