Written answers

Wednesday, 4 February 2015

Department of Public Expenditure and Reform

Government Expenditure

Photo of Peadar TóibínPeadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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70. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform further to Parliamentary Question No. 224 of 27 January 2015, if there is a section in his Department that retains data relating to all capital expenditure by the State. [5042/15]

Photo of Brendan HowlinBrendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Further to its responsibility in relation to the allocation and overall management of voted expenditure, including the Exchequer capital programme, my Department has data in relation to all voted capital allocations for, and capital expenditure by each Vote within Central Government. The data is available at Vote, programme and subhead level. This data is regularly published by my Department throughout the year, and is readily available in the annual Budget Estimates, the annual Revised Estimates for Public Services, and the monthly Exchequer returns which show year-to-date spending against profile and budget for each Vote Group. All of these publications are available on my Department's website (). Detailed data in relation to allocations and spending by each Vote over several years is available on our detailed databank website (). Performance information in relation to particular areas of Government - showing both resources used and outcomes achieved - is also contained on the Ireland stat website ().

My Department also hold some data in relation to certain non-voted capital spending - e.g. investment by State agencies and commercial semi-State bodies funded from own resources or borrowings - and this is published as part of the Public Capital Programme data in the annual Revised Estimates.

As outlined, my Department's data principally relates to Vote and sub-Vote level information. The Department does not hold data in relation to each capital project or contract awarded by all contracting authorities under the State. As explained in my reply to the Deputy last week, each contracting authority is responsible for maintaining such data in relation to its own projects. This is consistent with delegated sanction arrangements as set out in the Public Spending Code. Information about individual projects or contracts can be obtained from the relevant line Departments.

The Deputy will recollect from my previous answer that it is the responsibility of individual contracting authorities to publish contract award notices following the signing of a contract. This process is facilitated through the national eProcurement portal which is managed by the Office of Government Procurement. The information requested by the Deputy is being collated and will be issued directly to the Deputy.

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