Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Cathaoirleach and members for the invitation to appear before them. I am here to engage on four Supplementary Estimates proposed for Votes under the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation Vote group. I will detail the requirement for each Vote presently.

In summary, they are for a substantive Supplementary Estimate of a net €800,000 and a gross €800,000 for Vote 11, the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation; a substantive Supplementary Estimate for a net €1.172 million and a gross €1.101 million for Vote 14, the State Laboratory; a technical Supplementary Estimate for a net €1,000 and a gross €51,000 for Vote 17, the Public Appointments Service; and a technical Supplementary Estimate of a token €1,000 for Vote 19, the National Shared Services Office. All together, the proposed Supplementary Estimates result in an increased allocation of €1.974 million in net terms and €1.953 million in gross terms across the four Votes.

A further Supplementary Estimate under the ministerial Vote group is being sought for the Office of Public Works. My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Moran, will address that shortly.

The Department of public expenditure is seeking a substantive Supplementary Estimate for a net €800,000 and a gross €800,000 under Vote 11. This is caused by a move of staff in the infrastructure division in early 2025, previously covered under Vote 39, the Office of Government Procurement, OGP, to Vote 11, the Department of public expenditure. There will be a commensurate saving on the Office of Government Procurement Vote. As members know, in accordance with the programme for Government, a new infrastructure division was established within the newly formed Department. This resulted in 13 construction policy staff transferring from Vote 39, the Office of Government Procurement, to Vote 11, the Department of public expenditure. While the OGP is part of the Department, the separate Vote structure restricts funds transfers in these scenarios. A formal Supplementary Estimate is needed to give effect to the transfer of these allocations. As I said, a commensurate saving will be made in Vote 39, which will be returned to the Exchequer from the OGP Vote.

We are seeking a substantive Supplementary Estimate of €1.172 million in net terms and €1.101 million in gross terms for Vote 14, the State Laboratory. The requirement for this substantive Supplementary Estimate is the result of the Vote seeing a significant increased cost for laboratory consumables and equipment service contracts, pressures on premises expenses due to higher energy costs and an unforeseen, essential IT project – Microsoft Exchange.

Appropriations-in-aid income has also been lower than expected. However, the State Laboratory estimates savings of €220,000 in administrative pay due to delays in recruitment and staff vacancies. The Supplementary Estimate request includes a technical element to allow the State Laboratory to draw down €149,000 of an €820,000 EU grant, which will be used to purchase laboratory equipment. Both the relevant expenditure subhead and appropriations-in-aid have been increased by the same amount, resulting in no net effect on the Estimate for the State Laboratory.

On Vote 17, a technical Supplementary Estimate is sought for the Public Appointments Service, PAS. This net amount of €1,000 is required to allow the PAS to meet additional expenditure on payroll by redeploying savings elsewhere on the Vote. The payroll expenditure for PAS has being running slightly ahead of budget profile since the start of the year as a result of increased costs on payroll to support its recruitment mission. The funding requirement for this Supplementary Estimate is offset by savings under the interview board cost subhead. In addition to this, an increase in receipts and appropriations-in-aid has contributed to the resources available, meaning the net request is only for €1,000 net funding overall.

A technical Supplementary Estimate is sought for Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office, NSSO, to provide for the reallocations of funding within the Vote to areas experiencing pressures. Savings in programmes A, NSSO function, and programme C, finance shared services, with a total value of €3.3 million, will transfer to other areas within the Vote to provide for the reallocation of funding within the Vote to cover additional pay costs and core enterprise IT costs. These savings have arisen due to the timing of payments on capital projects and revised plans for the second wave of the implementation of financial management shared services, FMSS, resulting in the go-live having two phases across 2025 and 2026. In addition, €1.5 million is required to cover additional pay costs, including temporary clerical officers and overtime to address the increased volumes of work on hand along with pension and other payroll matters arising during 2025. An additional €1.3 million is required to cover core IT enterprise costs. Given the nature of the office, the NSSO is a significant consumer of IT-related services and costs in this area have been increasing year on year. Lastly, an additional €500,000 was required to cover increased bank charges and postal costs and unforeseen tax interest and penalties relating to pension matters arising during 2025.

In conclusion, the committee's approval of the proposed Supplementary Estimates will enable the Votes concerned to continue to provide key services and projects to the end of 2025. I commend them to the committee and am happy to answer questions related to the proposed Supplementary Estimates.