Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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1394. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality 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. [40640/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Department prepares an annual Appropriation Account in line with guidance issued by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, which provides details of the outturn for the year against the amount provided by Dáil Éireann, based on the cash amounts of payments and receipts.  The Comptroller and Auditor General performs the audit of the appropriation accounts for the previous financial year prepared by the Department.

I can assure the Deputy that in addition to the annual audit of the Appropriation Account by the Comptroller and Auditor General, my Department monitors expenditure and income against budgets across its own Vote on an ongoing basis. There are a number of structures in place for this, including a dedicated Financial Management Unit in the Department and a Financial Management Committee which assesses expenditure and income against budget on individual Votes in the Justice Sector and across the Sector.From a control perspective, the Department has an Internal Audit Unit and independent Audit Committee in place, which oversee an annual schedule of audit work and reviews.  

Of course, the Department complies with the Public Financial Procedures and the Public Spending Code issued by the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform respectively.  In addition, all new expenditure requests are scrutinised carefully in advance of the Estimates process and critically reviewed by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. 

My Department has also been fully engaged in the Spending Review process since its commencement in 2017 and has itself produced a number of reviews and also contributed to others carried out by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. 

The reviews by my Department relating to the Justice Vote include a review of the Criminal Legal Aid scheme in 2018 and a 2019 review in relation to expenditure on direct provision accommodation.  These are published on www.gov.ie.