Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

To outline the position again, we have accepted the recommendations in the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report. We absolutely recognise them. We have put in place contract reviews designed to deliver genuine savings. We recognise that due to the surge that took place from 2022 to 2024, we were not in a position to have the relevant structures in place, but we now are and we are actually delivering genuine savings.

The most important point related to this has two aspects: first, we must ensure that, going forward, we have the contracts in place delivering savings; and second, reflecting the position we have taken and on which we are absolutely focused, we must move where possible to having State-owned services that actually deliver substantial savings rather than having commercial providers. These two steps combined will deliver much better value for money in the system, which is what we all want to see. In partnership with doing that, we are also looking at all those contracts as they come up, with a view to putting in place a new contract rate card that also delivers savings.

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