Noel Treacy (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

Members of the Opposition have also levelled charges of Government indifference to the issue of value for money for the taxpayer. I reject such charges. Poor management of public expenditure and occurrences of wasteful expenditure have not, are not and never will be acceptable to the Government. More than previous Governments, we have been particularly active in improving arrangements for the management of public expenditure and seeking to address the issues and concerns raised by the Comptroller and Auditor General and others.

Since 1997, the Government has presided over a major improvement in public services across the board and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, set out the record in this regard in his cogent address last night. I remind Deputies of the significant measures taken by the Government to improve appraisal and management of public capital programmes and projects and generally secure better value for money from the high levels of public expenditure. They include the introduction in the budget for 2004 of a five-year rolling, multi-annual capital envelope framework incorporating a carry-over facility, new capital appraisal guidelines published in February 2005 and reform of public procurement and public sector contracts. The rolling five-year, multi-annual capital envelopes with their carry-over facility provide medium-term certainty for Departments and their implementing agencies. Together with the revised capital appraisal guidelines, they are delivering better management of public programmes and capital projects and producing a more even flow of projects which is resulting in better project appraisal and projects being completed on time and within budget in many cases.

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