Mr. Andy Harkness:

Vote 24 for justice and equality provides funding for a broad range of services and activities undertaken directly by the Department of Justice and Equality, or funded by the Department through the provision of grants. This includes the Irish Probation Service, the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service, the Office of the State Pathologist, the Garda Ombudsman Commission and many others. An overview of the main funded services and agencies is given in a summary diagram attached to this statement.

Members will also be aware that, in 2016, Vote 24 was one of eight Votes that made up the justice group. The others were the Votes for An Garda Síochána, the Irish Prison Service, the Courts Service, the Property Registration Authority, the Valuation Office, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, and the Policing Authority. These were all areas for which the Department had policy and legislative responsibility, but which are funded and accounted for separately.

Since 2016, there have been a number of significant changes in the organisational landscape of the justice group. For example, responsibility for the Charities Regulatory Authority transferred from the Department of Justice and Equality to the Department of Rural and Community Development in 2017. The Votes for the Property Registration Authority and the Valuation Office transferred to the housing, planning and local government Vote group in 2018. The 2016 appropriation account for Vote 24 records gross expenditure of almost €390 million in the year, spread across five spending programmes, as indicated in the figures provided. More detail on the composition of the respective programmes can be seen in note 3 to the appropriation account.

On the receipts side, appropriations in aid of the Vote totalled almost €65 million in 2016. Almost three quarters of this related to a range of fees charged in respect of immigration registration, nationality and citizenship certification and visa issuance. For the Vote as a whole, there was a net underspend of €25.5 million relative to the Estimate provision for 2016. This surplus was liable for surrender.

The Comptroller and Auditor General was satisfied, following the audit, that the account properly presents the transactions on the Vote during 2016. He drew attention, however, in the audit report to certain concerns around the development by the Department of a number of information and communications technology, or ICT, projects.

The Department provides ICT support services for many functional areas and for agencies within the Vote group. Between 2012 and 2016, its activity in this regard included projects for three of the agencies it grant funds: a case management system for the Insolvency Service of Ireland; a reporting and registration system for the Charities Regulatory Authority; and an online licence renewal system for the Private Security Authority. The Department had incurred direct project costs of around €4.6 million to the end of March 2017 on these projects, with €3.6 million of this relating to the Insolvency Service of Ireland. Functional gaps remain in the systems developed for the Insolvency Service of Ireland and the Charities Regulatory Authority. Both organisations are in the process of procuring replacement systems from the marketplace.

Our examination found that the projects, which were different in scale, complexity and background, had a number of shortcomings in relation to planning and oversight. The report includes recommendations in relation to strengthening the Department’s systems and procedures in the areas of business case development, adoption and monitoring of project budgets, and project governance. The Accounting Officer accepted all the recommendations and will be able to brief the committee on their implementation.

The Comptroller and Auditor General's report on the audit of the appropriation account also drew attention to non-effective expenditure of €3.89 million in relation to the fit-out and rent of a property leased for the Probation Service in 2008. Due to planning restrictions, the property could not be used for the purposes for which it was acquired, and the Department could not find an alternative use for the premises. Legal proceedings in relation to the lease were settled in late 2016. A summary of the events leading to the settlement is presented in note 6.8 of the account. The Comptroller and Auditor General reported in 2012 about the problems with the lease.

The previous Committee of Public Accounts sought to examine the matter on foot of his report but could not proceed at the time because of the legal proceedings.

Finally, the Comptroller and Auditor General drew attention in the audit report to non-competitive procurement of goods and services to the value of €6.1 million disclosed by the Accounting Officer in the statement on internal financial control.