24. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation the value-for-money reports published by his Department in the years 2023 to date in 2026. [74943/26]

Securing value for money is an ongoing priority for my Department. Policy analysis is a core component of the public expenditure management and value for money frameworks. A wide range of policy and expenditure analysis is undertaken and published by Government Departments annually.

Under the public expenditure framework, Departments operate on the basis of delegated sanction, whereby authority is granted to spend within agreed allocations, subject to conditions and oversight set out by my Department. This also places clear responsibilities on each Department to ensure adherence to value-for-money principles and to monitor and control spending.

In this context, individual Departments are responsible for conducting detailed policy analysis and expenditure evaluations within their own sectors, including assessing the efficiency and impact of programmes under their remit, and for contributing sector-specific insights and evidence to the policy making process.

The format and scope of their analysis have broadened in recent years, with a shift away from a focus on single-issue analysis papers to a wider variety of analytical output. This is reflected in the wide variety of publications including Staff Papers, Focused Policy Assessments, Spending Reviews, and Analytical Notes among others. All of this work feeds directly into key Government strategies, policies and spending decisions.

This evolution reflects the complexity and cross-cutting nature of many of the key areas driving growth in public expenditure. It has been enabled by the scaling-up of analytical capacity across Government, particularly through the establishment of the Irish Government Economic Evaluation Service (IGEES) network in 2012, reaching over 380 economists and analysts in 2026.

Over past three years, over 90 papers have been published by IGEES staff across Government. This work addresses a broad range of topics, including disability services, social housing, migration and labour market trends, statutory sick leave, wellbeing, education, transport, and youth participation.   This analytical research plays a key role in supporting evidence-based policymaking. Recent publications include:

• Reviewing Homeless Services and Expenditure.

• Transport Perspective on Reference Class Forecasting.

• Social Welfare vs Inflation Assessing Income Adequacy.

• Criminal Legal Aid Expenditure Trends, 2014-2024.

• Spending Review: Disability Residential Services.

• Trends in International Protection Metrics 2025.

• Focused Policy Assessment: HSE Adult Disability Day Services.

• Intergenerational Dependence on Social Housing.

• A Decomposition of Economic Activity linked to Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Ireland.

Each Department’s published policy analysis and strategies are published on their individual websites and, where developed using IGEES resources, are also published centrally on the IGEES section of my Department's website.

My Department plays a central role in the analytical process by regularly analysing expenditure trends and policies. In addition, my Department continually seeks to ensure evidence and analysis is at the centre of policy making, including through the budgetary process. This is communicated through our range of publications including the annual Expenditure Report (alongside the Mid-Year Expenditure Report) and the Public Service Performance Report; as well as publications such as Medium-Term Expenditure Framework; the Medium-Term Fiscal and Structural Plan; and the Review of the National Development Plan.

These publications have underpinned resource allocation decisions for the period to 2030 to progress a range of current and capital investments. The analytical work broadly complements engagement with Departments in the Estimates process and the analysis underpinning these discussions.