Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy will understand that I cannot anticipate any Government decisions that have not yet been taken in any of these matters. The aims of the NESDO value for money review is to analyse the output of the grant-in-aid funding provided to NESDO, to determine the impact of the development of public policy in line with the objectives of the Department of the Taoiseach and other relevant public organisations for NESDO and to inform future funding, administration, structural and policy decisions regarding NESDO. The review is being finalised by the steering group and will be subjected to external examination and come to me as Taoiseach thereafter. I cannot anticipate its outcome. This is not to be coy with the Deputy, but to be frank. There are no decisions as yet.

As the Deputy knows, NESDO was a way of capturing efficiency gains in respect of the three constituent bodies under its aegis and was a good example of what could be achieved in trying to deal with administrative savings. The value for money review is part of what one would expect in terms of ensuring taxpayers are getting the maximum benefit from grants-in-aid to all organisations.

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