Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I understand that, in accordance with Standing Order 180, Deputy Shanahan intends to move the referral to committee of the Capital Supply Service and Purpose Report Bill 2023. I invite him to make a brief comment on the Bill.

Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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I move:

That the Bill be referred to the Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach pursuant to Standing Orders 95(3)(a) and 178(1).

Many people will be aware that I have spoken many times in this House on the need for transparency in Government spending and also the need to deliver fairness and equity in Government decision-making. My entry into politics has largely been generated from my awareness of a continuing lack of balance and fairness in regional infrastructure spend and socioeconomic spending. The very recent exposés on the bike shed, modular homes and security huts, etc., show that now more than ever, we need new frameworks to interrogate spending on public infrastructure and value-for-money propositions.

I have pleasure today in referring the Capital Supply Service and Purpose Report Bill 2023 to the select committee. I thank my Regional Group colleague, Cáit Nic Amhlaoibh, our PA, for the support in getting the Bill to this point. I also sincerely acknowledge the help of the Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers, OPLA, and the Parliamentary Budget Office in helping to draft this Bill.

If enacted, the Bill will require each Minister at the end of every year to provide an annual report on all capital expenditure in their Departments where more than €500,000 was allocated. Due to the advice of the OPLA, the Bill provides for a retrospective review that would look back five years. In essence, the report is on spending from five years previously. It is interesting that the joint committee recommended in its report that the review timeline would be reduced to three years. The Bill, if enacted, will provide transparency and, most importantly, datasets to identify all capital spending in all Departments by project size, scope, location and development phase. It would offer visibility and transparency on all capital spending in Departments. It would go some way to provide a control on costs and to provide Ministers with oversight, which is so obviously needed at the present time, as has been proven. This legislation is needed. I hope the Government will support the Bill and allow it a speedy return back from committee to this House so that it might pass this House before an election suspends it.