Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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351. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform given that the Freedom of Information Model Publication Scheme Guidance (2016) issued by his Department under Section 8 of the FOI Act specifies that ‘payments or purchase orders for goods and services’ should be published on a quarterly basis for amounts above €20,000, but with a higher €100,000 threshold applying to the HSE, if his Department will review this threshold in light of the planned introduction of the HSE integrated financial management system, which will enable more comprehensive reporting; and if consideration has been given to aligning the HSE with the €20,000 publication threshold now applied to other FOI bodies, so as to enhance transparency and ensure consistency across the public sector. [51657/25]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation published the Model Publication Scheme in 2016. In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2014, it sets out requirements for the publication of information by FOI bodies routinely outside of the FOI process. As Deputy Dolan has stated, this includes the quarterly publication of payments and purchase orders for goods and services of more than €20,000 or in the case of the HSE a threshold of €100,000, or in the case of commercial bodies details published by category with a total value of more than €20,000.

The publication of the Model Publication Scheme document was subject to several consultations. An initial draft of the Model Publication Scheme was issued to public bodies and over 60 responses were received. Two FOI Network meetings were also held prior to its publication. During this process, the HSE noted that as the largest non-commercial state agency in Ireland, a significant administrative burden would be placed on the organisation if it were required to provide details on a quarterly basis of all payments or purchase orders for goods and services to the value of €20,000 or more. This observation by the HSE was subsequently reviewed by my department and it was determined that in the case of the HSE only, the threshold should be set at €100,000 as opposed to €20,000, owing to the size and the structure of the organisation.

Whilst the Integrated Financial Management System is now live on all statutory sites across the six HSE health regions, these sites cover approximately 80% of health expenditure. The remaining 20% of health spending occurs across the voluntary sector and is not yet processed through IFMS. This will form part of the next phase of the IFMS rollout and will be subject to separate sanction following a thorough review of the associated business case, benefits and costs.

To align the HSE with the €20,000 publication threshold, it would be imperative in the first instance for my department to engage with the HSE to assess the feasibility of this amendment following the full implementation of IFMS. A technical amendment would then have to be made to the Model Publication Scheme to align the publication requirements. Section 8(8) of the 2014 Act requires the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation’s approval of any revision to the Scheme and its publication in Iris Oifigiúil.

As such, it is not proposed at this current time to amend the Model Publication Scheme and its associated guidelines.