Summary of Main Points

There is no doubt that it is a core duty of all who are involved in spending taxpayers to seek to maximise the value for money received.  It is an area where we must always strive to do better.  This is not just an issue in this country - it concerns every government in the world.
My objective is that we will have in place and operative procedures, which match international best practice in terms of allocations, implementation, oversight and evaluation.
The Comptroller & Auditor General has long been a core part of the systems of oversight in this country.  His annual reports are exceptionally valuable, especially where they point to systems errors, which should have prevented waste occurring. 
One of the most important things to realise about public expenditure in this country is that social welfare, health, education and capital investment dominate the budget.  This year they will account for almost 80 per cent of total planned expenditure of just over €50 billion.  The biggest of all is, of course, social welfare.

Social Welfare
€13.5 billion or over one quarter of total expenditure goes to social welfare, the vast bulk of which goes directly to funding social welfare payments benefiting almost 1.5 million people.  This is more than double the spend in 2000, reflecting a clear policy decision to help the weakest in our society and reduce poverty - particularly for the elderly and families with young children. 

Education
Expenditure on Education is also a core part of the budget - accounting for €7.9 billion this year.  This is an area where spending has also risen substantially in recent years - as we have implemented a sustained programme to expand and improve provision at every level.  This is an investment in our people and their future, which is already showing a huge return. Let me give just a few examples of what is being achieved:

• In our schools, there are an incredible 10,000 more teachers at work than were there in 1997.  We have achieved the lowest class sizes in our history, and they will fall further this year. The first revised curriculum in over 30 years is being implemented in our primary schools.
• Some of the most dramatic improvements have come in the area of special education with, in many cases, entirely new types of provision being put in place.  Nine years ago there were fewer than 300 Special Needs Assistants working in our schools, today there are almost 7,000. 

The Research and Development Agenda
The Government has placed Research and Development (R&D) at the heart of its economic development strategy in order to build the skills necessary for a modern knowledge based economy and to strengthen our research base.  The Government is committed to make a quantum leap forward in the area of R&D and to move Ireland from impressive latecomer to acknowledged leader in this critical area.

Health
A quarter of all public expenditure goes to funding the health services and it rightly receives a lot of public attention. 
The most important thing increased funding has allowed is the hiring of 34,000 personnel across the full range of frontline and support areas.  In the last five years alone, hospitals have increased the number of cases they deal with each year by over 130,000. 

Capital Investment
Under the National Development Plan almost €24 billion to date has been invested in enhancing our economic and social infrastructure.  This massive acceleration over previous levels of investment is transforming the quality of our infrastructure.  Much has been achieved in upgrading our Transport network - both Roads and Public Transport.  In the near future we will have a much enhanced motorway/dual carriageway system linking Dublin and the other Gateway cities in the National Spatial Strategy. 
Investment in LUAS, DART, Bus capacity and Suburban Rail has very significantly increased public transport capacity in the Greater Dublin Area.  With Transport 21, a blueprint has been put in place to deliver a fully integrated and highly ambitious transport infrastructure for this country.

Conclusion
Sound economic performance has enabled a sustained increase in funding for public services.  This level of increase was necessary to resource the accelerated investment we need in key areas such as infrastructure, research and development, education, health and social welfare payments and to fund expenditure in new priority areas such as services for the disabled and childcare.  We badly needed a step-up in order to catch-up.