Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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122. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide a timeline in relation to the banking and financial management shared services project being led by his Department; if he will outline the objectives and a cost benefit analysis of this shared service project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20603/13]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Projects to baseline Finance Management and Banking services administered by the Civil Service commenced in November 2012 and are now nearing completion. Final baseline reports for the two projects have yet to be submitted to the Programme Board who, on the basis of the findings, will make recommendations on whether to proceed to the business case phase.

The baseline reports provide inputs into any future cost-benefit analyses of the potential efficiencies that shared services solutions might provide. A wide range of financial and non-financial information has been gathered on both financial management and banking including on costs, volumes of activities, number of full-time equivalents involved, process methods in use, range of technologies in place and other non-financial elements associated with provision of current services. The information is assessed by reference to some key comparable benchmarks to identify the opportunity for improving cost efficiencies and effectiveness of specific functions.

In the event of decisions to proceed to the next phase in respect of either or both of the financial management and banking projects, the baseline reports would constitute significant inputs to the business cases. They would involve consideration of a number of possible options and assessments of the financial and non-financial values of each of them.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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123. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in relation to the future expansion of the banking shared service project is it intended to include local authorities, the Health Service Executive and universities in third level institutions in this project and if the will provide a timeline; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20605/13]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The baseline report on banking services administered by the Civil Service has yet to be submitted to the Programme Board overseeing the project and thus, the scope remains unchanged from that set out at the start of the project.

The banking processes in scope include Treasury Management, Payment File Processing, Lodgements, Payable Orders, Receipts and Reconciliations.

The bodies in scope include all Government Departments and Offices whose annual budget is the total amount allocated in a Vote in the Annual Estimates of Public Expenditure and who, together with any associated Offices and Agencies, use Central Government Finance and Banking transaction processing systems. Organisations specifically outside the scope of the baseline phase include those in the local government sector, the education sector (other than the Department of Education and Skills) and the health sector (other than the Department of Health and Department of Children and Youth Affairs) along with State agencies who use finance and banking systems that operate independently of the Central Government system. In total there are 48 PSBs in scope for the baseline phase.