Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

3417. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the last occasion on which a Department-wide review of all funding within his Department took place; the frequency of such reviews; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40629/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Deputy will be aware that much of the funding within my Department is derived either in full or in part from the European Union's Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF), which is in place to deliver the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).  As such, it is subject to regular review and reform at EU and national level.  A new CAP regulatory framework has been recently agreed which will provide the basis for a new CAP strategic plan in 2023.

By way of example, the monitoring and evaluation of Rural Development Programme (RDP) expenditure (which constitutes Pillar 2 of the CAP)  is critical to ensure accountability, to allow for improvements in the design and targeting of support, to demonstrate the progress and achievements of rural development policy, and to achieve value for money in the use of public funds.

During the 2014-2020 programming period, my Department was required to submit annual implementation reports to the European Commission to measure progress on the achievement of various Programme targets. More detailed reports were required in 2017 and 2019 and an ex-post evaluation of the 2014-2020 RDP will be completed in 2026. In addition, evaluations were conducted on a number of individual RDP measures such as the Burren Programme and the Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS).  Further information and details on all monitoring and evaluation activities carried out by DAFM on the 2014-2020 RDP are available here: www.gov.ie/en/collection/6606a-rural-development-programme-rdp-2014-2020/#monitoring-evaluation

Outside the CAP processes, my Department conducts a number of policy reviews on an ongoing basis. This includes contributing to the Spending Review process, which is an annual process to evaluate programmes and support evidence-based policy making. Spending Review papers are produced by all Departments and published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform covering a range of policy areas.

Since January 2019, four papers have been published. These papers are led by our internal resources here in the Department and therefore no external costs were incurred.

The papers published were:

1. Animal Health – TB Eradication (2019)

2. Beef Data Genomics Programme (2019)

3. Teagasc AGRIP Research Programme (2020)

4. DAFM Competitive Research Programme (2020).

The 2019 papers are available: www.gov.ie/en/collection/5915ad-spending-review/#agriculture

The 2020 papers are available: www.gov.ie/en/collection/daf0c-spending-review-papers-2020/#agriculture

My Department will continue to work to ensure that policy formulation is supported by a robust evidence base to ensure that value for money central to policy making.

All reviews outlined above are considered annually as part of the budgetary process.