Written answers

Tuesday, 8 July 2014

Department of Public Expenditure and Reform

Local Authority Expenditure

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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329. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in view of the controversy and public anger over the €36 million spent by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council on a high-rise super-library building on Dún Laoghaire seafront, if there are lessons for his Department in terms of monitoring the value and purpose of major public capital projects to ensure the best use of public money; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29522/14]

Photo of Brendan HowlinBrendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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All publicly funded projects and programmes are subject to the appraisal framework set out in the Public Spending Code (available at ) which has been developed by my Department. Responsibility for compliance with the Public Spending Code lies with the Sponsoring Agency and Sanctioning Authority for a particular project. In the case of the project to which the Deputy refers, the Sponsoring Agency is the Local Authority and this sector operates under the policy direction of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government.

The overall aim of the Public Spending Code is to improve how public money is allocated and managed. To support this aim, the Code contains guidelines and instruction on the application of ex-ante appraisal to spending proposals, expenditure planning and design, management, evaluation and post-implementation review. The Public Spending Code also has Quality Assurance requirements to ensure the Code is being complied with and to highlight instances where it is not.

In relation to large scale capital projects in particular, the code stipulates that all capital projects with a value in excess of €20m must have a full Cost Benefit Analysis conducted on them as part of the appraisal process. The relevant Departments and Agencies are responsible for carrying out these appraisals. In addition, sponsoring agencies are required to carry out post project reviews to assess project out-turn and compliance with relevant procedures once the value of the project exceeds €20m.

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