Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes, the expertise is there. However, I emphasise again that it is our role to provide economic expertise and economic sanction for decisions. The Department is organised by Vote teams, and the Vote teams oversee and engage with each individual Department in huge detail. The engagement we have with them is in regard to what their spending plans are in general and, when appropriate, their spending plans by sub-Vote, that is, for individual parts of Departments. While we do have engagement with regard to projects when the projects go above a certain level, it is not the role of the Department to try to second-guess the technical expertise that might be behind an individual Department. For example, my Department does not have the expertise to be able to comment on the detail of how a school should be built but we do have the ability and it is our role to ensure that we have the funding in place to deliver against the school building commitments that we have. That is what our work is and I believe we have the expertise to do it.

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