Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

Senator Fitzgerald asked about the evaluation of public expenditure. That exercise is focused on current expenditure. She also asked about progress on public procurement reform. I remind Senators that savings were achieved during the course of this year and that projected savings are integrated into the Estimates for 2009. However, more work is to be done in this regard, as in every area of public service reform.

A new operations unit in the Office of Public Works designed to improve the performance of public procurement should be operational by mid-2009. Its immediate focus will be to improve value for money in public procurement, to reduce the cost of procurement to the Exchequer and to seek to establish a better procurement capacity. It will also seek to encourage appropriate cross-Border co-operation and in this regard, I thank the Northern Ireland Minister of Finance for making available to us one of his experts. It is intended that significant benefits will accrue from the enhanced use of best practice procurement techniques, including electronic procurement, employing e-auctions where appropriate. This approach is already in existence to some degree.