Jack Chambers orders ministers to beef up spending controls

Public expenditure minister reiterates need for government departments to show value for money amid record level of capital funding

Public expenditure minister Jack Chambers speaking at the Kinsale Lions budget breakfast in the Kinsale Hotel & Spa on Thursday. Picture: John Allen

Government departments have been told to strengthen internal governance structures as public expenditure minister Jack Chambers sets out guidance on major spending plans.

Departments are expected to outline plans for capital spending in the weeks ahead, months after a record amount of funding was provided as part of the revised national development plan.

Mr Chambers has called on Government ministers to ensure their governance structures within departments are sufficient to deal with the record level of capital funding being provided.

Value for money

One Government source said the plans should outline the timelines for individual project delivery as well as how the funds will be managed to ensure “value for money”. 

This includes the possible introduction of specific delivery structures, such as a delivery board, or using the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service to review its business case.

Ministers are also being told to consider reprioritising projects to ensure value for money and efficiencies are reached, it is understood.

There is also a call for departments to ensure robust costings are carried out.

Cabinet must provide sectoral plans 

Mr Chambers has instructed his Cabinet colleagues that the new sectoral plans must be provided to the Department of Public Expenditure before the end of the month, with individual plans to be published next month.

While all departments are expected to provide their proposals for spending, they will also be required to submit plans related to energy, water, and transport to the Cabinet committee on infrastructure in advance.

In total, the Government is expected to spend €102bn on infrastructure projects between 2026 and 2030.

Across the next decade, some €200bn is to be spent on capital projects, with the Coalition seeking to address shortfalls in critical infrastructure including water and energy.

New powers for Hiqa

Meanwhile, Cabinet is expected to approve a plan to provide additional powers to the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), which will allow it to investigate serious patient safety incidents within public nursing homes.

The proposal will see an extension of Hiqa’s powers, giving the regulator’s chief inspector the ability to either carry out or commission an independent review of a serious safety incident at a public nursing home.

This will be applied in situations where some or all of the care has taken place within a public nursing home.

It is understood heath minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill will bring the proposal to Cabinet, with junior minister for older people Kieran O’Donnell set to lead on the plan.

The powers are due to be granted by amending the Patient Safety (Notifiable Incidents and Open Disclosure) Act 2023, via the Health Report Information Bill 2024.

It comes in the wake of an RTÉ Investigates programme which examined the dire conditions of some privately-run nursing homes. Incidents outlined in the programme included:

• A man being refused a toilet break for 25 minutes due to chronic understaffing;
• A resident repeatedly left in an unchanged incontinence pad despite being able to use the toilet and having requests to do so denied;
• 'Fake' activity logs created to show residents engaged in pursuits that never occurred.