Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Question 13: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance his views on giving the Houses of the Oireachtas responsibility for spending evaluation programmes. [15669/08]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Orders of Reference for the Select Committees of the 30th Dáil specifically encompass consideration of spending evaluation programmes in the form of Value for Money Reviews and I wrote to the Chairpersons of all Dáil Select Committees on 1st February this year encouraging them to ensure that the Committees schedule time to consider Value for Money and Policy Reviews in detail, and where appropriate, to discuss the Reviews and their conclusions and recommendations with the relevant Department. In my view this approach combined with the submission of Annual Output Statements to the Select Committees results in an improvement in the quality of the information available to the Dáil in considering the Estimates and facilitates better accountability and information on what is being achieved for the moneys approved by the Dáil. Separately, the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General provides Value for Money Reports to the Committee of Public Accounts for consideration as part of his role in examining whether State bodies are using their resources economically and efficiently and have mechanisms in place to evaluate the effectiveness of their operations.