Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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506. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform for an overview of the primary and secondary legislation providing for the existence of his Department and the allocation of its functions. [23996/25]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department was established by the Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Act 2011, which was signed into law by the President on 4 July, 2011. This Act transferred to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the functions of the Minister for Finance relating to public expenditure, public service pay and public service modernisation.

The detailed functions of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in the Act include:

Public Expenditure: Responsibility for the management of gross voted expenditure and the annual estimates process, general sanctioning powers in relation to expenditure and policy matters relating to the appraisal, review and evaluation of expenditure, while the Minister for Finance retains responsibility for overall budgetary parameters.

Public Service Pay and Pensions: All functions relating to the appointment, terms and conditions, and remuneration of public servants transferred from the Minister for Finance to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

Public Service Reform: Public service reform and modernisation functions were put on a statutory basis in 2011 to reflect the new reform function included in the then name of the Department. The Minister assumed responsibility for existing non-statutory functions of the Department of Finance and the Department of the Taoiseach in the area of public service modernisation, development and reform. The statutory functions include the formulation and development of policies required for the modernisation and development of the Public Service and making proposals to Government in relation to the implementation of those policies, along with the coordination and review of the implementation of these measures across the Public Service. The functions also include the promotion of value for money in the provision of public services and the development of policy and procedural frameworks in relation to the procurement of goods and services by the State.

The Minister also has statutory functions under various other provisions in legislation governing public servants and the 2011 Act has been supplemented by a number of Statutory Instruments since 2011, including, but not limited to, S.I. No. 418/2011 - Finance (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) Order 2011; S.I. No. 480/2011 - Finance (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) (No. 2) Order 2011; and SI 19/2023 Public Expenditure and Reform (Alteration of Name of Department and Title of Minister) Order 2023.