Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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83. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the degree to which he continues to monitor the performance of all Departments and State or semi-State agencies with a view to maximisation of their contribution toward economic recovery; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28940/14]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Ensuring the sustainability of the public finances is a pre-requisite for our economic recovery.  This Government is committed to restoring economic stability and growth and has pursued a determined deficit reduction strategy in order to reduce the General Government Deficit below 3% of GDP by the target date of end-2015.  This is a challenging target and one that is set against a difficult economic background which has required fiscal corrections in the form of significant consolidation to voted expenditure. 

In setting Budgetary allocations, the Government balances the requirements of bringing sustainability to the public finances, promoting and supporting economic recovery and protecting the most vulnerable in society.  Each Minister and Department is responsible for ensuring that their Vote-level allocations are adhered to while at the same time ensuring that they continue to provide essential public services, and deliver on the commitments in the Programme for Government and their organisation's Statement of Strategy.  Across Government there is regular reporting of progress and achievements under various policy programmes - for example, the Action Plan for Jobs, and the Public Service Reform Plan - and each Department also has a statutory requirement to provide annual progress reports on the implementation of its strategy statement.

My Department is responsible for policy on allocating public funds across each area of Government spending and it monitors and reports regularly throughout the year on the drawdown of funding by Government Departments and Offices.  In recent years, the Revised Estimates Volume (REV) published annually by my Department has been expanded so that now each Department and Office also reports in the REV about key performance information relevant to their area of operation.  The purpose of this is to show what services are being purchased with public money and the impacts of these services for Irish citizens and for Irish society in general. This performance information is intended to support the Dáil Select Committees in their examination of the Estimates. The data is also published on the Ireland Stat website ) and this source of useful information to the citizen is now being extended to include performance information from all Government Departments and Offices.