The Government is to establish a new public spending efficiency taskforce to “extensively scrutinise” day-to-day expenditure across departments and agencies.
Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers said he wanted to see the new body established within three months.
He said the work of the new taskforce would inform the approach to subsequent budgets aimed at delivering efficiency and delivery in all day-to-day spending.
He said it would identify areas across public spending where there was scope to drive greater efficiencies and would recommend “specific actions that can deliver better services and greater value for money”.
RM Block
The Government’s expenditure report published on Tuesday said the new taskforce would “examine current expenditure with the objective of identifying a small number of key areas where there is scope for improvement and recommending specific actions to improve economy, effectiveness and efficiency”.
Chambers had told Ministers in the run-up to the budget that the introduction of efficiencies and reforms would be crucial, and examples of measures put forward by departments to be implemented over the next year are published in the expenditure report.
Plans for the taskforce came in for criticism from the opposition in the Dáil.
Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger claimed Chambers had gone “full-on Musk” by announce a “Doge”-style operation in the public sector, a reference to the Department of Government Efficiency set up by Tesla boss Elon Musk to slash US government spending under President Donald Trump
“He’s setting up this public spending efficiency taskforce that will monitor on a daily basis, scrutinise day-to-day spending, making greater efficiencies,” she told the Dáil.
“That will be news now to the tens of thousands of public sector workers who are going to be taking to the streets next Wednesday,” she added, referring to next week’s industrial action by public sector workers.
“It was so high-handed and arrogant of Minister Chambers to call on them not to go ahead with the industrial action when he never once mentioned how he’s going to deal with pay for public sector workers,” she said.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said in the Government spending report it envisaged that an anticipated 25 per cent increase in applications for passports – covering about 200,000 people – next year would be delivered with existing staff resources.
The Department of Culture and Communications said it would commence a periodic critical review of Sport Ireland later this year. This review will include the external environment, organisational capacity and organisational performance.
The Department of Health said it envisaged an increased utilisation of theatres, outpatient clinics and diagnostic equipment through improved scheduling, reduced downtime and stronger performance management to maximise activity from existing capacity. It also said there would be more evening and weekend care.
The Department of Housing highlighted planning reforms under which 10-year statutory development plans would be implemented, “providing greater certainty for communities, developers and infrastructure providers through a longer-term and more strategic approach to land-use planning”.
The Department of Education will review the English as an Additional Language policy “to ensure resources are allocated effectively and efficiently in line with changing demand”.
Revenue said it would continue to work with the Department of Finance in preparing for the introduction of legislation confirming that all tax appeal hearings must be held in public, with the exception of applicable special circumstances.
The Department of Justice said it planned to boost the Garda recruitment pipeline. Capacity at the Garda College will be increased to accommodate up to 250 trainees per intake.
The Department of Public Expenditure said savings would be delivered from an organisational restructuring following the integration of the Office of Government Procurement and the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer spending votes. It said a review of staffing structures identified opportunities to streamline management and support functions, resulting in the suppression of a number of posts and recurring annual pay savings.
Savings are also envisaged on the costs involved in running recruitment interviews. It is envisaged that a pool of serving Civil Service personnel would be established to serve as interview board members.
Plans for the taskforce came in for criticism from the opposition in the Dáil.
Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger claimed Chambers had gone “full-on Musk” by announce a “Doge”-style operation in the public sector, a reference to the Department of Government Efficiency set up by Tesla boss Elon Musk to slash US government spending under President Donald Trump
“He’s setting up this public spending efficiency taskforce that will monitor on a daily basis, scrutinise day-to-day spending, making greater efficiencies,” she told the Dáil.
“That will be news now to the tens of thousands of public sector workers who are going to be taking to the streets next Wednesday,” she added, referring to next week’s industrial action by public sector workers.
“It was so high-handed and arrogant of Minister Chambers to call on them not to go ahead with the industrial action when he never once mentioned how he’s going to deal with pay for public sector workers,” she said.
