Mr. Graham Doyle:

I have provided members with a detailed briefing on the 2015 appropriation account which is the subject of today’s hearing. My Department was not the subject of focus in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report for 2015 so the briefing the committee has describes spending programmes across the entire Vote.

In 2015, the Department’s overall gross expenditure was €1.6 billion. Our final outturn for the year, thanks to a Supplementary Estimate, was over €1.7 billion. The Department’s Vote is divided between five main expenditure programmes and the administrative budget. As Deputies will be aware, there are a large number of agencies under the Department’s aegis which we oversee in accordance with the code of practice for the corporate governance of State bodies. I thank Mr. McCarthy for the diagram, which is very helpful this morning. Much of the funding within this Vote is channelled through these State agencies and, as pointed out by the Comptroller and Auditor General, they are audited separately in terms of that expenditure.

In 2015, 80% of the Vote went towards the land transport programme, at almost €1.3 billion. This programme provides for spending in the area of roads and public transport. The roads programme spent almost €730 million, covering national, regional and local roads as well as PPP operational payments. The bulk of this funding is spent on the maintenance and upkeep of our road network, with some limited funding for new road developments.

Investment in the public transport infrastructure totalled almost €340 million that year, including Luas Cross City works. That project is still on target for completion of works and commencement of services this year. Funding was also provided to the National Transport Authority for PSO buses for the Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann fleets and for the continued implementation of various programmes around sustainable travel, traffic management, regional cities and accessibility grants. The public transport subhead also provides capital funding to Iarnród Éireann primarily for maintenance and renewal of the heavy rail network nationwide under the multi-annual infrastructure manager contract, IMMAC. In 2015, €209 million was committed towards public service obligation for public transport services. This was the first time since the fiscal crisis that funding was maintained rather than decreased. Subsequent budgets for 2016 and 2017 have seen the level of public service obligation funding increase substantially.

The tourism services programme, accounted for 8%, or €120 million, of the Department's Vote in 2015. This comprises the programme and administrative spend of the two tourism agencies, that is, Fáilte Ireland at €56 million and Tourism Ireland at €15 million, as well as the tourism marketing fund at €34 million and the tourism product development programme at €13 million. At the time, 2015 was a record year for visitor numbers to Ireland, with a total of 8.6 million visitors, an increase of almost 14% on 2014. These trends have continued. In 2015, a tourism policy - People, Place and Policy - was launched which set ambitious goals for the sector to 2025. The year 2015 also saw the launch of Ireland’s Ancient East, building on the success of the Wild Atlantic Way. It is clear that Brexit presents a particular challenge to the tourism sector. Over recent months, we have been working very closely with the tourism agencies and tourism stakeholders to ensure Ireland is positioned well to address these challenges.

The maritime transport and safety programme accounted for 6%, or €91 million, of the Vote in 2015. The main expenditure programme here relates to supports to the Irish Coast Guard at €76 million. In 2015, the Coast Guard responded to over 2,600 incidents and the search and rescue helicopters were tasked over 1,000 times. The year 2015 also saw significant progress in the modernisation of equipment and processes within the Coast Guard, including a new IT-based incident logging system within the three rescue co-ordination centres. This new system has greatly improved operational effectiveness and efficiency within the centres.

The sports and recreation services programme accounted for 6%, or €90 million, of the Department's Vote in 2015. The programme supported the Irish Sports Council and National Sports Campus, at €57 million. Both have since merged to form Sport Ireland. We provide funding to the sports capital programme and the swimming pools programme. During 2015, significant progress was made in the development of facilities at the National Sport Campus, including work on the development of a new high performance centre, a new multi-purpose campus conference centre. Work also commenced on the National Indoor Arena which has since been completed.

In 2015, the gross expenditure provision for the aviation programme was €26 million, or 2%, of the Vote. The largest beneficiary of the funding is the regional airports programme, at €12 million. This programme also covers costs associated with our membership of Eurocontrol and subscriptions to other international organisations. The year 2015 saw the publication of the national aviation policy following significant stakeholder consultations. A key element of the policy was the subsequent establishment of a National Aviation Development Forum which had its first annual conference last Monday.

Finally, the Department’s administrative budget, at €34 million, represents 1.7% of overall spend. It covers pay costs for the Department’s staff of around 450 in 2015 and administrative overheads such as IT, travel, utilities and accommodation services.

Over recent years, the Department has been proactive in developing new policy responses across its remit on a strong evidence basis. I have mentioned a number of these already. However, a particularly important piece of evidence-based policy was the strategic framework for investment in land transport, which we call the SFILT, that was published in August 2015. This strategic framework considered what role transport needs to play in the future development of the economy and to estimate the appropriate level of investment in the land transport system. The evidence analysis provided important inputs to the existing capital plan and it will also inform our input to the review of that plan which was announced earlier this month.

I hope that this opening statement has provided the committee with a broad overview of the expenditure areas under my remit and that it has been helpful to the committee as it examines the 2015 appropriation account.