Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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1043. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the last occasion on which a Department-wide review of all funding within her Department took place; the frequency of such reviews; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40632/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The annual funding allocation for my Department is agreed following extensive consideration of the requirements for the primary and post primary schools sectors. As part of that process, funding requirements are subject to detailed scrutiny and to engagement with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The agreed allocation is set out in the annual Revised Estimates which are presented to Dáil Éireann and then subject to consideration by the relevant Select Committee. The annual Appropriation Accounts for my Department are subject to review and audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General and are published following certification.

In recent years, significant areas of my Department’s expenditure and certain policy initiatives have been the subject of Spending Reviews conducted by my Department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. For example, two recent Spending Review papers have examined the teacher allocation process in order to inform expenditure planning in that area.

Since 2017, the Spending Review process has become a key platform for public expenditure analysis. The Spending Review process builds on previous rounds of Comprehensive Reviews of Expenditure, in which my Department participated.

These annual reviews subject programmes/policy areas to critical assessment on a rolling basis and support the Government’s deliberations in setting multi-annual expenditure ceilings. They also provide Government with the opportunity to examine how public resources have been used, to set out how public resources could be used – to prioritise – and to examine where new spending proposals can be accommodated within existing budgets. All of the reviews, including those relevant to the work of my Department, are published on the website www.gov.ie/en/policy-information/7dc2b1-spending-review/.

It should be noted also that capital planning and budgeting is undertaken on a multi-annual basis. The specific allocations in each area are closely monitored and may be adjusted from year to year to take account of project progress and other factors. My Department proactively manages its capital allocation across the various subheads and budget lines to advance its school building and other capital investment priorities.