86 Mr. Ferris asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the current programme of expenditure reviews being undertaken by his Department. [18893/99]

Shortly after assuming office, the Government initiated a series of programme expenditure evaluations, under which Departments commit to periodically reviewing all of their expenditure on schemes and programmes. The objective is to ensure that spending programmes are still relevant and to identify priorities for adjustments in expenditure.

The current programme of expenditure reviews for the year April 1999 to April 2000 in my Department is as follows; free schemes (travel, electricity, TV licence, phone rental); one parent family payment; back to school clothing and footwear allowance; urban and Gaeltacht school meals schemes; illness and disability payment schemes; supplementary welfare allowance (SWA); money advice and budgeting service (MABS); community development programme (CDP).

The first five of these are already under way. The SWA and MABS reviews will commence early in the new year and the CDP review will commence in mid year.