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

I thank the Senator for his amendment. When he commented on the Bill on Second Stage he said that we needed to move from advocacy to analysis regarding major projects. I am keenly aware of this point. At a time of continued constraint on our ability to spend taxpayers' money on projects we need to ensure that all available funding is spent and allocated in the most efficient way possible. Of course, that is one of the reasons to have this new body, which will be able to play a very valuable role in the deployment and maintenance of infrastructure throughout the country.

Despite that background agreed between the Senator and me, I am still not in a position to accept the amendment. The need to analyse how money is spent on behalf of the taxpayer is very much accepted across the Government. It is perhaps the main rationale for the creation of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, headed up by the Minister, Deputy Howlin. That Department in the first instance deploys appraisal standards and requirements relating to cost-benefit analyses for publicly provided and funded projects. The requirements for doing so are set out in the public spending code published by the central expenditure evaluation unit of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. This code incorporates long-established elements of the value-for-money arrangements that have been in place and consolidates the best practice regarding cost-benefit analysis requirements. This is the framework for appraisal of national road schemes. It incorporates the requirements of the public spending code and is very much in line with my Department's guidelines on a common appraisal framework for transport projects and programmes.

For all of these reasons it is considered that the proposed amendment would not be appropriate for inclusion in primary legislation. As the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform's public spending code deals comprehensively with the issue of cost-benefit analysis, providing for this matter in primary legislation could have the effect of restricting that Department in any future revisions to the public spending code.

Alongside the requirements of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the way in which it would evaluate spending proposals from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, I also have within my Department a unit providing ongoing assistance on how we can best deploy taxpayers' money and ensure we get the best value for money in road and infrastructure projects. A clear indication of the importance of the point made there came with my Department's preparation of and the Cabinet's agreement to the strategic framework for investment in land transport study. We hope to publish that in the near future. It will provide a macro-framework within which my Department proposes to respond to the constraints on us owing to the need to spend taxpayers' money efficiently and also because there are many competing demands for that money.