merrion street

Public Expenditure & Reform Minister Brendan Howlin today called for the public to submit creative, constructive proposals for saving millions of euro across every area of Government spending.

The Minister was launching a public consultation exercise on the Comprehensive Review of Expenditure (CRE), which aims to identify major savings and efficiencies to reduce the State’s expenditure levels. These savings will go towards meeting the Government’s overall targets for fiscal consolidation over the coming years, in line with the requirements of the EU/IMF Programme of Financial Assistance.

While the Comprehensive Review is now underway within each Government Department, Minister Howlin said he did not see the Review as confined to the public service alone.

“All citizens want to see better value for their money, as part of this I would urge people to put forward their ideas and proposals on how to achieve this."

Minister Howlin invited comments and suggestions from all citizens to be submitted via his new website.

“I am looking for ideas from everyone and anyone in Ireland, whether from the public or private sectors. I do appreciate that many users of public services – as well as public servants themselves – will have a clear view of wasteful practices, of spending programmes and schemes that offer poor value for money, or areas where staff could be freed up for other duties. I am asking everyone to let me have their constructive proposals so that they can be considered in the context of the review.

The public are invited to make submissions on the Review via

The new online Databank is available at