Public service pay has been governed by a system of collective agreements since the Croke Park agreement was negotiated in 2010. These collective agreements have helped to ensure that public pay is managed in a sustainable, affordable and orderly manner. These agreements have also enabled significant reform of public services and changes to work practices. As the Deputy will be aware, the current public service agreement, namely, Building Momentum, was due to expire at the end of 2022. Discussions recently conclude…

I thank Deputy Farrell and agree with her point on the value of section 39 organisations and the work they do. I met representatives of several section 39 organisations over recent weeks in the lead-up to the budget and they made the point to me on the impact of the pay deal on them. As they are of course grant-aided organisations, they receive their financial support directly from the HSE. I expect the financial support they receive from the HSE will need to reflect the fact that there is an increase in funding fo…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Having been a practising Deputy for more than 15 years, I have a deep appreciation of the work of our secretarial assistants. An independent review was carried out on the secretarial assistant grade at the request of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. It has been completed and in the past few days has been sent to my Department, having been considered by the commission. Under the 2003 Act, it falls to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to give consent or …

The partnership agreement sets out Ireland's investment strategy for its cohesion policy funds. Ireland will receive €1.4 billion in cohesion policy funding for the period 2021 to 2027. When this funding is co-financed at national level, it will mean cohesion policy programmes will add a total value of almost €3.5 billion to the economy. Using these funds, implementation of the partnership agreement will strengthen economic, social and territorial cohesion and further reduce disparities between different regions, i…

I cannot answer the question on the European Commission publishing its assessment but will seek to find out the answer for the Deputy. As I said in my reply, the Commission classifies regions into three categories depending on their GDP output performance relative to the EU average. Based on that, the northern and western region has been reclassified from a more developed region to a region in transition. This is because of the band it now falls into in terms of economic output relative to the EU average. Let me ad…

I do not accept the Deputy's assertion that it is an indictment of Government policy. It is the European Commission that has reclassified the region because of its improved economic performance relative to the European Union average.

The population is up in the northern and western region. Employment is up there, as, of course, are investment levels. It is because of its improved performance that it has been reclassified, not by the Government but by the European Commission. I do not suggest that the Deputy is trying to make a political football out of it.

This is not a national decision; it is a decision by the European Commission based on the three classifications it has for regions and it is based on the improved performance of the north and western region using that benchmark.

As the Deputy is aware, my Department is responsible for the allocation of public funds across each area of Government spending and ensuring that expenditure is managed by Departments in line with these allocations. My Department is also responsible for maintaining the national frameworks, such as the public spending code, within which Departments operate to ensure appropriate accounting and value for money in public expenditure. The responsibility for the management and delivery of investment projects within the a…

The first point is that my Department does not manage the capital projects of other Departments. It is their responsibility, in line with their legal obligations, to manage those projects, and it is the responsibility of the Accounting Officer to do so. Arising from the lessons that had to be learned from the national children's hospital, the public spending code was strengthened in 2019. I went further than that in the past year by bringing in a new external assurance process that involves setting up a panel of ex…

There are many opportunities for projects such as this to be debated, such as at the health committee, here on the floor of the House as a Topical Issue matter and so on. It is not for me, as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, to commit to a debate on a project that is being managed by another Department. As I stated, the capital budget for this project was approved in 2018. Since then, the public spending code has been strengthened. I have introduced a new external assurance framework to strengthen the ov…

Budgetary and expenditure reform remains a key feature in terms of public expenditure and budgetary management throughout all Departments. This important goal is progressed in a number of ways, including through day-to-day management of resources, regular engagement across Departments and the public service reform programme. It is also progressed through a range of important budgetary reform initiatives, including but not limited to: the public spending code; the national development plan; performance budgeting; eq…

I assume the Deputy is primarily referring to the delays in delivering capital projects. There is a balance to be struck between ensuring that we have proper oversight mechanisms in place, on the one hand, and, on the other, the speed of execution and getting projects on the ground. In the last couple of years, we have had significant underspends on the capital budget. While Covid was a significant contributory factor to that, there are other reasons and some of it is about process and the length of time it takes f…

I will take the first part.

I will respond to Deputy Durkan and it is a matter for the Leas-Cheann Comhairle if she wants to allow the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, to respond to Deputy Carroll MacNeill. Some Departments are quite adept at spending their capital budget. The Department of Education is very good at delivering school building programmes, extensions and new schools. It has well-developed processes and can navigate its way through the public spending code quite well. People will always raise issues about individual projects…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 85 and 100 together. The level of employment in Ireland reached more than 2.55 million people in the second quarter of this year, the highest level ever. Increased labour force participation has been a key factor behind the strong employment recovery. Despite some expected softening in the labour market over the next year or so, tight conditions and skills shortages for some sectors are likely to persist in the labour market. This creates challenges for all employers, including the …

They are facts.

As the Deputy well knows, the Government, through local authorities, approved housing bodies and the Land Development Agency, LDA, is embarking on the largest public house-building programme that this State has seen, and rightly so. The Deputy was correct in his outline of the scale of the challenge, which is most acute in Dublin but is present elsewhere around the country as well. For the reasons the Deputy raised, the Government introduced a cost-of-living budget. We are reducing childcare costs by a quarter next…

The LDA's Project Tosaigh will do much of what Deputy Boyd Barrett suggests. Recently, the Government discussed a developing situation whereby a significant number of sites had been earmarked for build-to-rent apartments but the private sector was unlikely to proceed with those developments because of changes in the interest rate environment. They can now look elsewhere for returns in non-property investments. For example, they can buy Government bonds and so on. The apartment model is probably less attractive now …

I thank Deputy Dillon for raising this question. Budget 2023 contains a significant response to support households, public and community services and businesses, with spending measures of some €4.5 billion in aggregate. The Government announced a €2.2 billion winter cost-of-living package for households, including a double week of social welfare schemes in October, a fuel allowance lump sum of €400, a once-off payment of €500 to those in receipt of carer's support grant and to people on disability allowance, blind …