Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the committee for making time available today to consider this request for Supplementary Estimates. I am seeking a Supplementary Estimate a €400,000 for the Central Statistics Office in respect of Vote 4; €4.667 million for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in respect of Vote 5; and €3.58 million for the Chief State Solicitor's Office. A detailed briefing of each of these Votes has been supplied to the committee in advance of the meeting.

In relation to the Central Statistics Office, the CSO, is Ireland’s national statistical institute and is an independent office under the Statistics Act 1993. It is responsible for the production, co-ordination and qualitative oversight of official statistics in Ireland. The CSO provides independent statistical information to support and promote understanding and debate across Government, business and society.

Turning to the CSO's supplementary request, the CSO is currently projecting a gross additional need of €1.73 million. The pressure on the Vote is driven by several elements. The projected overspend in subhead A1 - salaries, wages and allowances - is due in the main to the underfunding of the 2024 pay increases and an ambitious and early recruitment schedule in 2024. Additional requirements are projected in respect of subhead A3 - training and development; subhead A4 - operational services, supplies and sundry equipment; and subhead A7 - policy reviews, consultancy services and research.

In relation to the training and development subhead, the organisational capability review of the CSO completed earlier this year noted the importance of the CSO investing in training to meet statistical and administrative skills needs and to meet skills needs in new specialist and developing areas such as artificial intelligence, AI; geographic information systems; cybersecurity; and data science and data analysis. The demands for training are continuing to grow as CSO staff numbers increase.

The additional need in the operational services, supplies and sundry equipment subhead is driven by increased postal and advertising costs. Postal charges and the number of post outs have continued to increase, even with increased use of online response facilities. Advertising is necessary to raise public awareness of the value of participating in CSO surveys, with a view to increasing engagement with surveys and assuring quality. Maintaining and increasing response rates is key to the quality of data with falling response rates a serious organisational risk. The additional need in the policy reviews, consultancy services and research subhead relates to increased requirements for cybersecurity related consultancy in 2024.

The CSO has reviewed all subheads to maximise savings available and to minimise the additional need requirements. The CSO has successfully identified savings of €1.03 million from within administration subheads and also proposes to reduce the additional need requirement by using an excess of €300,000 in appropriations-in-aid. As a result of these efforts, the CSO has reduced the projected additional demand on the Vote to a net figure of €400,000 and is therefore requesting a substantive Supplementary Estimate of €400,000.

A Supplementary Estimate of €4.667 million is requested on behalf of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP. The key function of the Office of the DPP is to provide a prosecution service that is independent, fair and effective for the people of Ireland. While the Taoiseach has certain responsibilities to the Oireachtas for administrative matters in the Office of the DPP, the office operates independently of the Department.

There are three factors which give rise to the need for this Supplementary Estimate. I will address these in the order in which they are listed in the Vote. In subhead A2, an additional allocation of €785,000 is required on the administration non-pay subheads. The additional funding is required to fund investment in ICT, staff training, accommodation and to meet increased travel costs in relation to staff servicing an increased number of court sittings, particularly outside of Dublin.

Subhead A3, fees to counsel, expenditure on fees to counsel is, to a large extent, dependent on the level of activity in the courts at any time, and so is always difficult for the Office of the DPP to forecast. The projected overspend of €5.52 million on this subhead can be attributed to a general increase in the number of indictable prosecutions directed across all the courts, and to a significant increase in activity in the Central Criminal Court. The number of judges assigned has increased from five to 12. As a result, there has been a very significant increase in court sittings, trials and lists to be supported by the Office of the DPP.

The factors giving rise to the overspend in 2024 are likely to continue into 2025 with the appointment of additional judges by Government. However, an additional allocation of €6.6 million has been added to this subhead for 2025 to respond to increased levels of court activity around the country. The Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform sanctioned an increase in fee rates of 10% with effect from 1 January 2024. This has also had an impact on overall expenditure on fees to counsel in 2024.

Notwithstanding this, the fee rates payable to criminal barristers in 2024 are still 16% below those which were paid in 2008.

With regard to A4, the law costs subhead covers the payment of legal costs awarded by the courts in judicial review matters and other legal proceedings. The projected overrun of €400,000 in 2024 is principally due to an increased number of claims arising from a significant general increase in court activity in recent years. These cases were settled on behalf of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions by the State Claims Agency, which manages third-party legal cost claims against State authorities. The additional expenditure I have advised the committee of amounts to a total of €6.705 million. However, savings of €1.86 million anticipated on the A1 administration pay subhead and increased appropriations-in-aid contributions of €0.178 million has reduced the amount required by way of net substantive Supplementary Estimate to €4.667 million.

On Vote 6, a Supplementary Estimate of €3.58 million is sought this year for the Chief State Solicitor’s Office. The CSSO is a constituent part of the Office of the Attorney General and acts as solicitor to Ireland, the Attorney General and to Government Departments and offices. While the Taoiseach has certain responsibilities to the Oireachtas for administrative matters in the CSSO, the office operates independently of the Department. This Supplementary Estimate is sought to cover extra expenditure on three subheads within the Vote in 2024: A4, fees to counsel; A2, administration - non-pay, relating to digital capital investment and IT services; and A3, external legal services.

Subhead A4, fees to counsel, is the largest proportion of the moneys sought. The CSSO's mission is to provide the highest standard of professional legal services to Government, Departments and offices as economically and efficiently as possible and to support adherence to the rule of law. As part of the delivery of this service, the office incurs expenditure on counsel fees. The management of expenditure on counsel fees is a key activity for the office. These are primarily fees payable to external counsel following the delivery of the relevant legal service where they represent Government Departments and offices in litigation before the Irish courts, other tribunals and the Court of Justice of the European Union. They also include fees payable for the provision by external counsel of specialist legal advice for the State, whether sought for the Attorney General’s office or for Departments and offices. The overall level of these fees is, to a large extent, demand led, dependent on the level of activity in the courts at any time and complexity of the given cases. Therefore, they can be difficult to forecast.

In recent years, the office has seen a marked increase in the complexity and volume of work in areas such as commercial and procurement law, property law, planning and environmental law, social welfare law, commercial litigation and mass litigation. A major growth area over 2023 and 2024 to date has been in judicial review litigation against the State. This increase is driven primarily by a number of factors, including immigration and asylum related judicial review and large-scale judicial review litigation in areas such as social welfare, education, integration-international protection reception conditions and planning and environmental law.

An allocation of €17 million was made for expenditure on fees for counsel in 2024 - a reduction of €2.5 million on 2023. This reflected the fact that particular project work involving counsel had come to an end. However, the current position shows that after the fees requested by counsel undergo a value for money assessment, this will leave a shortfall of €3 million in this area over the allocated amount.

On subhead A2, with regard to the expenditure on digital capital investment and IT services, the office is operating in an increasingly digital environment. Access to reliable electronic case and records management systems are central and critical to the delivery of solicitor services to the Attorney General and to Government. Increasing problems with the reliability, performance and accessibility of the case and records management systems posed significant risks to the continuity of delivery of the core legal service to Government and necessitated an essential upgrade in 2024. The work undertaken should ensure a more robust and reliable system going forward. The shortfall for this subhead is €859,000.

Regarding subhead A3, an additional allocation of €50,000 is required to cover a projected overspend under this subhead. The CSSO has identified savings of €329,000 in subheads A1, administration pay, and A5, general law expenses, which can partially reduce the estimated overspend. Following the offsetting of the identified savings, the net substantive Supplementary Estimate required is €3.58 million.

I welcome the opportunity to discuss the Supplementary Estimates with the committee.