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The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Michael McGrath TD, today (Wednesday) published the Public Service Performance Report 2020.

This report, now in its fifth year, strengthens the focus on what is being delivered with public funds. It provides the citizen with a clear and accessible report on how public funds have been allocated, how those funds have been used, and the impact of this spending on our society.   It is also a key tool to support our Oireachtas Committees in scrutinising this spending and engaging in a performance dialogue with line Ministers. This year’s report also includes an update on our Equality Budgeting and Green Budgeting which give an additional dimension to the impacts of public spending.

The 2020 Performance Report highlights the outputs and impact of activities across all of Government during a very challenging year. 2020 was a year dominated by the pandemic with, as outlined in the Report, over 2.4 million COVID-19 laboratory tests conducted, over 6,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among hospital inpatients, and an average of over 690,000 weekly working age income support payments made by the Department of Social Protection.  

Performance targets are published in the Revised Estimates Volume (REV) each year. However, the timing of the publication of the REV means that outturn information for the current year is not yet available and only performance targets can be published. This report, providing timely quantitative performance data, aims to enhance the focus on performance and delivery by presenting relevant performance indicators in a dedicated and concise document.

On publication Minister McGrath said:

‘The Public Service Performance Report is a key budgetary report that provides clear and focused information on how public funds are being utilised and their impact on everyday life. This focus on performance is targeted at supporting budgetary discussions on the effectiveness and efficiency of the totality of Government expenditure rather than just the incremental increase each year.

An update on Equality and Green Budgeting, which are integrated into the Performance Budgeting framework, is included in the report. There are now twelve Government Departments actively engaged with Equality Budgeting. Following Government agreement to establish an interdepartmental working group, I look forward to this important area of work being further developed taking account of the ongoing work in relation to developing a Wellbeing Framework for Ireland.’   

ENDS

Contact: Claire Godkin - Press Officer, Department of Public Expenditure and Reform - 085 806 3969