Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I will respond to Senator Barrett's point about the need for proper evaluation. I was about to speak about the budget line. I hope we can construct the budget preparation in a different way, with a little more openness in terms of ideas and a collective debate on them. I have spoken at the economic management council about the possibility of doing this. We will see how it works. It will not work if it is partisan all the time. Perhaps it will not work. Perhaps we are not yet sufficiently politically mature to be able to do that. I do not know. We will see.

I would like to speak about the value for money issue with regard to all budget lines. Senator Barrett rightly referred to the cost-benefit analysis. We are publishing details of a range of reforms that are aimed at achieving best value for money. Many of them are embedded in the programme. I propose to make presentations on the reform agenda, including the value for money issues, at both the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and the Committee of Public Accounts. I will see how we can do that. I would welcome any inputs into that.

I do not want to take up too much time in case any more Senators have yet to contribute. Senator Hayden spoke about the shift in population, which is an important issue. She mentioned the need for transparency and robust evaluation. Many people have commented on that general theme, which I strongly support.

I strongly agree with what has been said about decentralisation. Perhaps we are all too quiet. Wexford was supposed to gain a decentralised Department of State. Clearly it will not now be the Aireacht in the traditional sense because that is to remain in Dublin. Objectively, the decentralisation project caused significant disruption to the totality of the public service at a time when it needed to be focused as never before. There was a notion that the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government would move to Wexford and 300 people would relocate. Of course, those 300 people would not all have been staff of the Department. They would have come from a dozen Departments and agencies of State. The collective memory and the operational capacity were not only lost but sundered for a while. Parts of Departments have been realigned as part of the restructuring of Departments. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is a brand new Department. There are bits of Departments all over the shop. Many of the so-called "advance parties" are in isolation. This huge issue needs to be solved. We have made determinations. We hope that will be done.

I assure Senator Quinn that I am determined to put as much data on procurement and expenditure as possible on the website of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. I would welcome any observations he might have in that regard.