Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 5 April 2017

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Engagement on Overall Fiscal Position: Discussion

2:00 pm

Mr. Derek Moran:

In that case, I do not think there is. Every time we introduce a new expenditure we try to include the provision that it will last for three years and before it is extended it must be reviewed. We are trying to make sure that most of the major expenditures are reviewed every three years or so. It depends on our capacity to get around to all of them.

It is treated much more as an expenditure line and it is about getting value out of that expenditure line. Some base tax reliefs introduced in the 1960s, which were still with us in 2010, had delivered whatever objective was set for them at that stage and we have spent a very painful time trying to get them out of the system.