David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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6. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the number of staff in his Department involved in or responsible for overseeing the budget and expenditure of the Department of Health; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2624/14]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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It has been reported that officials from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform are helping to oversee the budget and expenditure of the Department of Health. If that is the case, perhaps the Minister might take the opportunity to give us some details. How many officials are involved? To whom do they report? Will they publish reports?

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I thank the Deputy. One principal officer, two assistant principal officers and two administrative officers are assigned to the health Vote section within the labour and enterprise division in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The Vote section is managed by an assistant secretary as part of his overall brief.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Is the Department of Health being treated differently from other Departments? Are the officials mentioned by the Minister working full-time in the Department of Health? Will they report to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform? When did their oversight start and will the results of their work be published?

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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No, this is not unique to the Department of Health. An assigned individual or group of civil servants from the expenditure division of the old Department of Finance used to monitor the Vote of each line Department. That has always been the way it has been done. Every year Departments and offices set out their expected profile of expenditure on a month by month basis. During the course of the year each Department and office reports monthly to my Department on the actual performance against the expenditure profile set out. I bring these to the Government which now looks at departmental expenditure on a monthly basis. It does not take a huge amount of time for us to do this. The bigger spending Departments such as the Department of Health take up more time than smaller spending Departments in terms of the focus of my Department. Although a Supplementary Estimate of just under €200 million was needed by the Department of Health, I am gratified that the out-turn figures for last year's general overall performance of all Departments show that we spent less than we had profiled. This singular achievement reflects well on line Departments and the monitoring of expenditure generally.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Are these officials involved in making decisions? What authority do they have to make decisions or changes? Are they involved in macro-managing or micro-managing the expenditure and the budget of the Department of Health? In the energy expenditure area, for example, are they considering a move to combined heat and power plants in hospitals, a move which I understand would save approximately €20 million? At what level of detail are they looking?

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The specific work referred to by the Deputy is not carried out by the Vote section of my Department. It is carried out by the reform section. As the Deputy will be aware, we have reviewed how we procure across the public service. We decided last year to establish a centralised Office of Government Procurement. We have set a strict and specific target of €127 million across all sectors for procurement savings this year. A large chunk of that saving which will be made by means of better procurement models relates to the Department of Health. We have a target of saving €500 million through better procurement in the next three years. These ambitious targets will be driven by a different section in my Department - the Office of Government Procurement - which will work out a procurement plan across all Departments.