Mr. David Moloney:

I thank the Cathaoirleach and the committee for the invitation. There is a great deal of detail in the statement and, with the Cathaoirleach's permission, I will take much of it as read and briefly summarise the contents of each of the agenda items.

The agenda of my Department is to drive the delivery of better public services, living standards and infrastructure for the people of Ireland. To support this, we undertake a range of actions under our strategic goals of enhancing governance, building capacity and supporting effective delivery. In relation to my Department's financial performance in 2022, the appropriation account for Vote 11 shows that the net outturn was €41 million compared to an estimate of €46.5 million. This gives a surplus to surrender of €5.5 million. This surrender was partly due to higher receipts than expected of €947,000, savings on payroll of €1.6 million and a saving of €1.7 million relating to the management of EU programmes.

In respect of Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances, the net outturn for 2022 was €253.3 million, compared to an estimate of €353.4 million. This gives a surplus to surrender of €100.1 million. The surplus arose primarily due to an underspend on established Civil Service pensioner lump sums and greater than anticipated contributions received under the single public service pension scheme.

In relation to the OGP financial performance in 2022, the appropriation account shows the net outturn was €17.8 million, compared to an estimate of €19.5 million, giving a surplus to surrender of €1.6 million. This was mainly due to lower than expected expenditure on staff due to recruitment challenges.

The OGCIO Vote provides a funding model to deliver the Department's vision of a single, common ICT service platform and to support the digital government agenda. The net outturn for the OGCIO Vote in 2022 was €42.9 million, compared to an estimate of €43.3 million. This gives rise to a surplus to surrender of €368,000. As the Comptroller and Auditor General said, it is important to note that €18.5 million of the 2022 estimate relates to the national recovery and resilience plan.

Turning to chapter 5 of the report on the accounts of the public services, the Appropriation Act 2022 provided for spending on voted services totalling €78.1 billion. There was also unused capital funding of €819.3 million carried over from 2021, bringing the total available Vote funding to €78.9 billion. This level of funding supports the provision of a wide range of public services, infrastructure investment and income supports.

In the note, I set out several drivers of spending in 2022 and pointed out that the figure of €7 billion for Supplementary Estimates approved by the Dáil in 2022 was driven by factors such as the war in Ukraine, the new public service pay deal, the cost-of-living packages and the additional funding requirements of particular Departments. Of the €7 billion, €4.6 billion was already provided for contingency funding under the expenditure ceiling, and the expenditure ceiling was extended by a further €2.3 billion. At the end of the year, a surplus of €2.8 billion was recorded, of which €687 million was approved for carryover, meaning a surrender of €2.1 billion.

Overall, surplus appropriations have been higher since 2020. This coincides with the outbreak of the pandemic and the introduction of non-core expenditure to deal with particular shocks related to the war in Ukraine, the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. My Department continues to review our expenditure monitoring and management processes to ensure allocations are informed by the best available information.

In terms of the format and content of the appropriation accounts, we provide an amount of information in this regard. Within central government, we have a cash-based system. This has the benefit of simplicity, ease of comprehension and familiarity for stakeholders. At the same time, however, we are introducing a range of international public sector accounting standards, IPSAS, which will bring forward an amount of accruals information so we can have the best available information on both a cash and accruals basis. We hope to introduce the first nine of those standards in 2024.

The renaming of the Department to include "National Development Plan Delivery" in late 2022 has brought a greater emphasis on and mandate for the delivery of the national development plan, NDP. A series of actions and reforms were identified as priorities to improve the delivery of NDP projects and programmes and the Minister secured Government approval for that package in March 2023. It is important to emphasise that my Department is responsible for setting the overall multiannual capital expenditure ceilings for each ministerial Vote group, as set out in the NDP and Project Ireland 2040. It is also responsible for maintaining the national frameworks within which Departments operate to ensure appropriate accounting for and value for money in public expenditure, such as the public spending code and the public procurement policy.

The public spending code sets the value-for-money requirements and guidance for evaluating, planning and managing capital projects. The actual delivery of NDP projects and priorities continues to be the responsibility of the relevant Department and Minister with sectoral responsibility. They are also responsible for complying with the framework set up by my Department in terms of ensuring appropriate value for money and the appropriate use of public funds. The public spending code, as a tool, can help to ensure the projects can be set up for successful delivery.

Effectively, using the code provides for a sound approach to addressing issues that arise in project development in the right way and in a timely manner. It provides, through the life cycle changes, for opportunities to re-evaluate and update projects and, therefore, project agility can be provided so adjustments can be made to current conditions.

I thank the Chairman and committee members for their attention and I look forward to our discussion on the agenda items.