Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 20 October 2022
Public Accounts Committee
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding
9:30 am
Mr. David Moloney:
We are engaged regularly in those kinds of conversations. There are two points we would make in that regard. One is that the development of business cases and value for money justifications at an early stage in a project are a key signifier of the success of that project. Where that basic work is not done at the start, the project has a much higher chance of going over budget and over time. We do not see it as a delay. There are challenges in different State agencies in the context of remembering and taking it into account in their planning. Nobody goes out to buy a suite of houses next week. These things are all planned well in advance, and the value for money aspects need to be built into the planning by purchasing authorities.