Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 74: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the way, in respect of the announcement of 3 February 2009, he intends to achieve the general administrative reductions in regard to his Department; the amount expected to be saved in his Department's budget as a result of this process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14255/09]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I refer the Deputy to my reply to Questions No. 56 and 110 of 25 February, 2009.

Since then and in advance of the publication of the Revised Estimates Volume, my Department has introduced a number of measures to achieve the general administrative cost reductions which are required.

All expenditure in my Department's Vote Group is reviewed every month by the Department's Financial Management Committee. Expenditure trends are identified and where necessary, corrective measures are put in place. In addition to this high level expenditure control function, each Departmental agency, division and associated body has its own financial management processes which, in some instances, monitor trends on a weekly basis.

Prudent financial management requires that contingency arrangements be put in place, where possible, to cover unanticipated events. In this respect my Department's contingency arrangements include the postponement of spending decisions on "discretionary" items until such time as the likely overall expenditure patterns on the Vote Group have become clearer.

Clearly, the Government sector, as a major procurer of goods and services, is in a unique position to maximise its purchasing power. Consequently, my Department has undertaken a comprehensive analysis of existing supplier arrangements, costs and rates in order to identify potential savings. This is in addition to the savings already being achieved by the implementation of the 8% reduction in professional fees. In advance of the establishment of the National Procurement Operations Unit, my Department has also strengthened its sectorial procurement network in order to achieve the best prices from the market.

The Deputy will be aware that a key area where savings can be realised is in the shared services approach, where back office functions, such as Finance, ICT and HR, can be shared by a number of different units to produce cost savings. My Department fully supports the concept of shared services and currently operates a major public sector financial shared services centre in Killarney, as well as an IT shared services facility which encompasses the core Department, twenty sectoral agencies and over 1,500 users.

I would also like to draw the Deputy's attention to the fact that my Department is also participating in the Office of Public Works (OPW) Energy Awareness Campaign. This project aims to conserve energy in State Buildings and has as its objective a 15% reduction of CO2 emissions per annum in all of the nominated State Buildings. A number of my Department's main buildings are included in this project and, with the assistance of the OPW and external advisors, we are already well on the way to achieving our targets and real cost reductions in energy supply.

I expect that, in accordance with the Government's decisions on these matters, the required budgetary savings will be achieved by my Department in 2009. The precise details of these reductions are still being finalised and will be published in the normal way in the Revised Estimates Volume on Thursday. As the Deputy will appreciate, I cannot pre-empt their formal publication but I anticipate that the amount to be saved in respect of these administrative reductions will be in the order of €10m.