Ms Hilary Murphy-Fagan:

The shared services strategy and plan was developed in 2012. There was a very small project team in 2013, when the operation started to deliver services in Clonskeagh in Dublin, but staff numbers started to grow when payroll services commenced at the end of 2014. As we expanded the service offering to new Departments, the number of staff working in shared services increased. Shared services is a specialism that requires clear accountability for all the people who receive the services and the Departments that are served. It also requires clear funding arrangements, a very strong customer focus and a continuous improvement focus on operations and technology. I suppose that is different from the business of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, which is primarily a policy Department. The NSSO is more than twice the size of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. We always envisaged that when the shared services centres got up and running, it would not make much sense to stay within the Department in light of the lack of synergy. We are the administration office.