Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is a fair question. Individual Departments are allocated money at budget time. They are given the independence to spend that money with the oversight of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. It monitors their expenditure, audits them and then produces a report on each Department. The relevant committees of the Oireachtas can then bring the Accounting Officers before them and question them on the expenditure and what type of anomalies exist. The job of the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform is to ensure that the individual Departments act within their budgets and deliver what they said they would do within the amount of money they have been allocated. We also, however, have this additional responsibility that we are now taking on, namely NDP delivery. This is a focus which goes beyond just approval and appraisal of projects and also includes ensuring that projects happen, that they are pushed out and that we assist individual Departments in finding ways to ensure their projects do proceed. Overall, though, there is a balance here. Individual Departments are responsible and will continue to be responsible for their own expenditures. The Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform is ensuring they stick within their budgets.

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