Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the review of the rural social schemes that he has undertaken; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58010/12]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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As part of the range of expenditure reforms introduced over the past year, Focused Policy Assessments (FPAs) have been introduced as a new format for conducting short, streamlined evaluations of particular aspects of public service configuration and delivery. FPAs are designed to complement the broader range of evaluation tools available within the public service, including Value-for-Money & Policy Reviews, and will assist in maintaining the analytical momentum that was developed during the course of the 2011 Comprehensive Review of Expenditure. Part of the rationale for FPAs is to stimulate, and to a degree to challenge, thinking within the broader system of public administration about current issues in public policy, and as such the findings of FPAs are not intended to reflect necessarily my views as Minister or the position of Department of Public Expenditure & Reform more generally. Final decisions in particular policy areas will be made by Ministers, weighing all of the various inputs to the decision-making process.

As set out in the recent Expenditure Report 2013, a range of FPAs are currently underway within my Department, and one of these relates to the Rural Social Scheme. This FPA is being carried out by the Central Expenditure Evaluation Unit of my Department and I understand that it will be finalised over the coming weeks.

This particular FPA is examining a number of core policy evaluation criteria, namely the rationale underpinning the Scheme, the continuing relevance of the objectives of the Scheme, and to a lesser extent, the effectiveness of the Scheme. The methodology consists of review of programme documentation and previous evaluations, analysis of wider developments in related policy spheres and quantitative data analysis.