Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for having the sense to recognise that even if a person is planning a household budget for a week, he or she would have to sit down and do a bit of preparation. If a Department is planning a new system for a significant payment to most households in the country, of course there must be a project team and an implementation plan.

That is just good business management and political management. I do not write letters for the Secretary General of my Department. Ministers and senior civil servants are separate in their functions. Have I discussed it with the senior officials in my Department, including the Secretary General? As I said to Deputy Cowen, I have discussed it repeatedly. It is a major project, among other projects. For instance, we have major projects under way, by and large, on the efficiency with which people get their payments and on the need to develop and improve the Department's IT system, which was designed in the 1980s and the early 1990s. This is a fantastic opportunity for the Department and for the Civil Service to develop a modern IT system for a national payment to households which will be delivered on time and efficiently. Of course, it must be set out in detail. I do not have to tell the Deputy that even if one installs a new iPad or some other IT facility in one's home or in one's office, one has to sit down and work out how the new system will work. That is what the Department is doing.

We deliver 87 million payments and this will be an additional 1 million payments - a new unique payment to all households. Inevitably, it must bring together a great deal of work by specialists at different levels. We have very dedicated staff in the Department of Social Protection, many of whom work in regional areas, including Sligo, and who are top class at what they do in delivering services. This project will be like all the other projects. Through these kinds of reforms, the Department has been saving huge amounts of money for taxpayers and I am confident in the ability of our public servants to deliver the new system on time and at the minimum cost.

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