Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for her briefing and presentation. I remember speaking during the summer with somebody working in quality control in a very technical area in a high-tech company. The person concerned was checking and rechecking technical systems, almost to the point of being sick.

The point he made was that if he could not find the problem, there was something wrong. That was his reasoning and that was what he was there for. He would keep going until he found the problem. Sometimes that is difficult in terms of how Departments present Estimates to the public, committees or policy makers. This is particularly so given that the social protection budget, at almost €20 billion, is the biggest voted current expenditure for which the Government has responsibility.

In the context of the Department's Vote, there is a move from financially-based to performance-based assessments, which is quite complex. As the Minister has outlined, if one is introducing a new programme or initiative such as OneDSP, it is complex. It means a lot of interaction within departmental sections and outside agencies. It may be difficult in the Department of Social Protection and other Departments to assess the success of a new programme based on financial measures. For the public and policy makers, that becomes almost impossible in the way Estimates are formatted.

The question concerns the potential for the Department to embrace performance-related measures within a reporting structure. For example, that would show if this is a programme we would like to have or one that we need to have. That would be assessed not just on a snapshot of a particular Estimate year but also on a continuous basis. In that way, one could say that in year one of the programme the performance output measures have been X. Over two or three years it will become obvious at a glance whether this is working and whether money has been wasted within the programme. If that system was embraced, it would be important in terms of holding the performance of Departments and Ministers to account.