Written answers

Thursday, 17 June 2021

Department of Public Expenditure and Reform

Departmental Policies

Photo of Christopher O'SullivanChristopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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254. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will outline his key policy achievements in his Department since 27 June 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32722/21]

Photo of Michael McGrathMichael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that in line with the requirements of Section 4 of the Public Service Management Act, 1997 my Department prepares a progress report on the implementation of its strategy statement annually. The Annual Report for 2020 was published on 12 May, was laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas and is available on the gov.ie website at this link:

The Executive Summary of the Report sets out at a high level some of the main developments in 2020 as a whole, with further detail included throughout the report. Some key areas of work included:

- Managing Public Expenditure better by:

- managing the impact on the public finances of measures introduced to support people and businesses in the context of Covid-19;

- continuation of the rolling Spending Review process to provide a robust evidence base to inform policy making in the short and medium term;

- overseeing gross current expenditure by Departments of just over €85.3 billion and capital expenditure of €9.6 billion;

- progressing the Performance Budgeting and Equality Budgeting initiatives;

- supporting the implementation of Project Ireland 2040; and

- supporting financial management reform;

- Proactively preparing for the end of the Brexit transition period, including negotiation and rollout of the new Brexit Adjustment Reserve and developing Ireland’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan;

- Continuing to oversee the management of the 2014-2020 EU Structural Fund Programmes, engagement in the development of the 2021-2027 EU Cohesion Policy programmes and oversight of the North South EU programmes and the Special EU Programmes Body;

- Working to agree “Building Momentum”, the new public service agreement for 2021-2022, and managing the implementation of public service pension policy;

- Driving Civil Service Renewal and wider Public Service Reform, including:

- Co-ordinating the implementation of the Civil Service Renewal Programme, guiding and monitoring implementation of the framework for development and innovation in the Public Service (Our Public Service 2020) and leading a whole-of-government process to develop a new vision and ten-year strategy for the Civil Service;

- Continued implementation of the People Strategy for the Civil Service 2017-2020, including, in response to Covid-19, providing leadership and a public service-wide collaborative approach to the issues arising for public service employers, transferring online learning for staff via OneLearning, as well as providing supports for staff through the Employee Assistance Service and Office of the Chief Medical Officer; and

- pursuing reforms to deliver open, accountable and ethical government;

- Driving the digital agenda, including through supporting the move to wide-scale remote working in response to Covid-19, progressing digital solutions to challenges posed (e.g. the Contact Tracing App) and using the gov.ie portal as a key communications channel; and taking forward the implementation of Public Service ICT Strategies; and

- Implementation of the Public Procurement Reform Programme, including:

- completing 662 competitions for public service bodies, covering expenditure of €470 million; and

- establishing 32 national commercial arrangements, covering an estimated spend of €1.5 billion over their term, and a further eight discrete contracts covering spend of almost €200 million.

The Deputy may also wish to note that a broad range of information and updates about the Department's key policy areas are published on its section of the gov.ie website at the following link:

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