Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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28. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide in tabular form the annual charge to the Exchequer for the outsourcing of goods and services by the public sector from 2011 to date in 2015; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26125/15]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Government is committed to exploring alternative service delivery models including external service delivery, as part of an overall objective to improve the quality and efficiency of public services, while ensuring they remain affordable and sustainable. This is a key component of the Public Service Reform Plan 2014 2016 which was published in January 2014. The Government has agreed that external sourcing must be considered as a means of delivery for any new service that is to be introduced.

Each public body, when deciding whether to use external service delivery, is expected to produce a detailed Business Case. This will involve evaluating the merits of such a decision, taking into account a number of factors including certain costs, quality of service, effectiveness and the public interest. Given that external service delivery is undertaken on a case by case basis at Departmental, organisational and agency level, the details of costs incurred or benefits realised is a matter for the public body in question.

My Department does not maintain a centralised repository of external service delivery contracts, or their individual values, for each and every Department, public sector body or agency.  However, this information may be sought individually from Departments in relation to the external service delivery contracts under their aegis.

The Deputy may be interested to note that the External Service Delivery plans that were submitted to Government by each Department were published by my Department in March of this year and are available on my Department's website.