Select Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Opening Statement by Robert Watt Secretary General Department of Public Expenditure and Reform April 5th 2017

Introduction

I welcome the opportunity to speak with the Committee alongside my colleague Derek Moran, Secretary-General of the Department of Finance. I particularly welcome the opportunity to discuss how my Department can assist the work of the Committee on Budget Oversight in carrying out its duties.

Context: Expenditure Reform and Whole-of-Year Budgetary Process

I would like to begin by emphasising my Department’s role in the recent improvements that have been made in relation to budget clarity, oversight and engagement.

The Medium-Term Expenditure Framework provides Departments with greater clarity regarding available resources and better planning in the provision of key public services. Moreover, the whole-of year approach to budgeting facilitates greater engagement with the Oireachtas and shifts the focus on budgeting away from one single event in October.

Expenditure Reporting: Existing Publications

More information than ever before is now available in relation to how public resources are allocated and utilised. A number of key milestone events facilitate the publication of detailed information during the year:

The Summer Economic Statement outlines the overall fiscal stance;
the National Economic Dialogue facilitates a robust exchange of views from various stakeholders, including members of Oireachtas Committees, on the competing economic and social priorities facing the Government;
the Mid-Year Expenditure Report publishes the pre-Budget baseline for Departmental expenditure and represents the starting point for examination of budgetary priorities by the Oireachtas and identifies areas where expenditure pressures may arise;
allocations for the coming year are subsequently published in the Expenditure Report on Budget Day with three year multi-annual ceilings in addition to details of specific budgetary measures;
the Revised Estimates Volume, published in December, details the specifics of the coming year’s allocations and also provides the public and Oireachtas Committees with convenient ‘at-a-glance’ information on what services are being provided. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has announced his intention to go further in this regard with a new Performance Report to provide timelier performance indicators to sectoral Committees than is currently possible through the REV. It is expected this will be published this month.

Overview of Expenditure Management Process

Prudent management of expenditure by my Department has played a significant role in the stabilisation of the public finances with a reduction the underlying deficit from 11.5% in 2009 to less than 1% in 2016. Economic conditions have improved markedly in recent years and increases in expenditure over the last three Budgets have been prudent and sustainable averaging just 3% per annum

As the Committee is aware, the management of the annual Exchequer funding provision allocated to Departments is governed by the rules detailed in Public Financial Procedures. On an ongoing basis, managing the delivery of public services within Budgetary allocations is a key responsibility of each Minister and their Department, and measures are in place to help ensure that these budgetary targets are met. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is in regular communication with all Departments and Offices to ensure that expenditure is being managed within the overall expenditure parameters. The drawdown of funds from the Exchequer is monitored against the published expenditure profiles. As set out above, there is regular and timely reporting to Government on these matters, and information is published monthly as part of the Exchequer Statement published by the Department of Finance.

As the year progresses, year-end spend can finish ahead of profile. Explanations for this include forecasting issues and higher than anticipated numbers in demand-led programmes. In addition, policy decisions taken by Government can increased expenditure over and above that forecasted in the REV.

Topics Raised by the Committee’s Letter

I would like now to turn to the specific topics raised by the Committee in their invitation letter:

(i) “Overall Fiscal Position based on Quarter 1 Returns and Briefing on Outturn of Receipts and Expenditure”

Turning now to expenditure performance for the first quarter of the year, gross voted expenditure of €13,599 million to end-March was €130 million (-0.9%) below profile, with gross voted current expenditure €155 million (-1.2%) below profile and gross voted capital expenditure €26 million (3.8%) above profile.

At this stage there is no evidence of any significant emerging pressures which may have significant implications for the achievement of expenditure targets for 2017.

The Finance function in each Department and corresponding Vote Section in DPER monitor emerging expenditure trends closely on an ongoing basis. This is to help ensure that there is early identification of areas of expenditure pressures. This means that early action can be taken to ensure that overall expenditure levels at Vote Group level are fully consistent with Voted allocations and overall expenditure targets are achieved.

(ii) “Engagement Between the Department and the Committee”

I would like to reiterate my Department’s intention to engage with the Committee to the fullest possible extent. My officials have made themselves available to the Committee on numerous occasions and I will ensure that this continues.

(iii) “The Information Requirements of the Committee and the Parliamentary Budget Office.”

I am aware the Committee have suggested supplementary expenditure material from my Department and I would like to address these suggestions in turn.

(a) Information on expenditure outturns and monthly forecasts

As previously mentioned, the timely expenditure information already published as part of the Exchequer Statement contains detailed information on current and capital expenditure by Vote Group. This is made publically available and my officials would be happy to engage on any issues related to expenditure performance

The Orders of Reference for the Committee refer to the situation where significant variations from the expenditure profile could impact on the overall fiscal position. The Exchequer Statement provides information to facilitate such an assessment and could be enhanced by advising the Committee of the reasons for any substantial variances that could negatively impact the end-year position.

(b) Analysis of and reporting on potential expenditure risks

The Committee has highlighted the issue of potential expenditure risks and I would like to address this in relation to Voted expenditure.

A fundamental principle of the MTEF now in place is that responsibility for meeting expenditure needs within agreed Ministerial Expenditure Ceilings is a matter in the first instance for the relevant Department via reprioritisation or procedures such as virement within Votes. This is necessary to avoid an expectation that emerging issues need to be addressed through increases in expenditure allocations.

Another important consideration in reporting potential expenditure risks is the Government’s prerogative in terms of decision-making. This includes expenditure priorities and choices inherent in allocating increased funding resources to any spending programme.

(iv) “Overview of Expenditure Drivers and risks to the fiscal position [2017-2021]”

In relation to the Committee’s query on the main drivers of expenditure, the most well-known of these relate to demographic pressures such as the provision of additional teachers or a larger number of citizens qualifying for the State Pension etc. The IGEES staff within my Department conduct regular analysis of such trends in order to inform the setting of Ministerial Expenditure Ceilings published in the Expenditure Report. An amount of €0.45bn has been provided for these purposes in 2018.

Another key driver is staff numbers, there has been significant recruitment in frontline areas in recent years with almost 18,000 (+6%) additional staff recruited since the trough in 2013. In relation to public sector pay, an allowance has already been factored into the budgetary arithmetic for 2017 and 2018 to take account of the Lansdowne Road Agreement (LRA). Recommendations from the Public Service Pay Commission are expected in Quarter 2 and following this the Government have committed to begin talks on a successor to the LRA.

I am happy to facilitate further discussions on the issue of expenditure drivers.

Concluding Remarks

My Department has increased both the quantity and quality of its engagement with stakeholders on expenditure matters in recent years. I am confident that the level of information currently available provides a strong basis for an analysis of expenditure performance.

I would like to express my appreciation once more for the opportunity to speak on front of the Committee and reiterate my Department’s intention to engage with the Committee and help with your work.

ENDS

Aibreán 6th, 2017|Speeches

IP Stresser

With the increasing preponderance of large-scale distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on websites around the world, applying long-term DDoS defense that will defy these potentially incapacitating assaults is of extreme importance. But, how do you understand your defensive steps will in fact be helpful in a situation? Normally, choosing the right ip address stresser (another title to get a booter) is an occupation that is easier stated than done provided the wide array of products and providers accessible on the web in a number of different price points. Booters come in shapes and numerous sizes, and picking the best one for your needs can be a time consuming undertaking. This is the the reason why we have compiled this special record just for you individually to help you to find the best stresser for the needs that are electronic. Before we dive into the minutiae of choosing from among the very best booters out there, we would like to dissect a ddos-attack functions. The motives behind DDoS attacks are as varied as may be, but they all reveal one principle in keeping: To remove the target site stopping other (legitimate) consumers from obtaining its assets. This denial of service is understood via the use of applications that were unique that floods the device that was targeted hence compelling with web requests, the target to allocate assets apart from legitimate statements. Thus, additional consumers attempting to enter into the goal will encounter exceedingly slow surgery or problem messages. Normally, the host may be overloaded and crash if it is not right optimized to take care of high-pressure and high -load system conditions. They're usually executed with an external or internal assault vector even though numerous forms can be taken by DDoS assaults. An attack vector that is an inside generally takes the type of malicious software which uses the physical hardware assets of the service equipment up, thus making it gradual, incompetent at providing a regular answer to any inbound requests that are external from valid traffic and customers, and treacherous. An attack vector that is outside takes the form of undesirable traffic developed either via a dispersed collection of devices that are networked (additionally called a bot-net) or through actual human beings (such as using a software like LOIC). For this guide's intentions, we'll focus on the attack family that is exterior. Protecting your hosts from inner attacks may require the usage of antimalware applications that's at night scope of the guide. Instead, we will give attention to the kinds of pressure that is different screening alternatives offered to about the net personally to you now, and the best method to pick the right one for the Skype resolver that is distinctive and personal wants. One choice might be to use a main firewall managing program to be able to block incoming requests from various IP addresses that are questionable. Obviously, this option is comparatively fundamental and improbable to be suitable in hit situations which can be more difficult. Also, firewalls mightn't maintain the correct network level as a means to intercept this kind of destructive traffic. Together with DNS solutions and its conventional CDN, CloudFlare also supplies a high tech alternative by leveraging avenue strike boxes in the supply points of the strike and an internationally distributed data center network that will disperse, for protecting your system and server resources. You might think as a distributed protect against a dispersed strike of services like CloudFlare. As a means to assess whether your defensive actions probably will be productive within a a realworld strike in your server resources, you're do-ing to wish to analyze in a managed environment outside those defenses yourself. Many companies all around the globe provide ip address booting services to work as if they are a real world DDoS attack on your own system, to help you perform this testing test which is managed. By analyzing how your defenses respond to the simulated test, you could possibly observe for yourself if your current DDoS defenses are sufficient. All things considered, the worst thing you could do is wait until your system is under attack to gauge the effectiveness of your mitigation option. That is a recipe for catastrophe that individuals desire to allow you to use a skype resolver to stop.. Then let's examine how you will get the IP increaser that is perfect on your equipment and software configuration. Remember the points we touched on above when you see pick a certain merchandise. Based on your personal distinctive settings, many others might be worse than specific products. There is an extensive number of different stress tools that are not inaccessible out there nowadays. They each have distinct capacities, strengths, and weaknesses, to selecting the best one to your testing needs, thereby necessitating an in-depth guide. What types of features would you should attempt to find in the IP stressers you're considering utilizing? We ought to recognize the common features shared among booters that are first rate and notice those are optimal for the particular usecase, to answer this query. To best provide your DDoS rights a run for their money, you're likely to desire to throw at them just as much traffic as possible. Since DDoS assaults can happen on multiple layers, it is necessary to evaluate in case a given stresser is really capable of mimicking these varied forms of strikes. In the minimum, youwill need to make certain that there is a stated booter capable of mimicking attacks on Layer 4 and Layer 7, and that it could run numerous types of programs (such as SYN or RUDY) on those layers. Then you definitely might want to hunt elsewhere, if your nominee service cannot do attacks in this manner. You are also going to want to guarantee that the IP booter you're considering is not incompetent at handling an extreme traffic result over your testing time frame. At a bare minimum, the support may want devoted servers which can be souped up and capable of managing the sorts of extreme demands you will subject it to throughout the testing process. On Layer 4 and Layer 7 DDoS assaults, there are several amplification methods that could be used, including amplification, SSDP amplification, and amplification. The point that is crucial here is that you want to model in the most practical manner possible a realworld attack on your own infrastructure. You'll be when you go to accurately evaluate the effectiveness of your defenses the more amplification tools which are furnished, the better off. A great user interface is essential to plenty of of reasons, particularly when you are coping with a numbers-extensive program like an IP stresser. The booters that are very best will have user interfaces that are geared for fresh customers towards efficiency and availability. Additionally, you might need prior to making a buy choice to drive to get a demonstration to determine how the software looks and operates for you. The best stressers concerning the market will provide customer service that is second to none to you. To test away how efficient a specified business may likely be in providing you top-notch help, we advise that you merely reach out to them via email to find out how lengthy it requires to get an answer, and when that answer provides comprehensive, relevant advice regarding your issue or request advice. Applying this method, you'll have the opportunity to get a rough approximation of how well the firm is getting proper care of current clients and their potentiality. The top booters available on the market will likely let you try up and bring out their assaults economically and immediately. The power for confirmed IP stresser to start several concurrent assaults on your own defenses is an effective strategy to learn how well your systems are designed for the load over long trips. You're going to desire to discover at what price point just how several concurrent connections your ip address booter that is prospective can manage, and that performance is not unavailable for you. The types that are best is planning to have the opportunity to size and handle numerous strikes simultaneously. Another important feature of ip address stressers is the ability to allow them to browse around defensive mechanisms. The best booters around the net HTTP source titles for sites that solutions that are distributed protect is certainly going to are able to solve domain names and for instance CloudFlare. This performance could possibly be a terrific means to fix find out how nicely your dispersed protection service (for instance CloudFlare) can manage attacks that attempt to resolve domains. Let's summarize what we have protected here. Firstly, you discovered how DDoS attacks function, and many of the common characteristics shared among all of their their different types. Afterward, we took a quick look in the different preventative mechanisms that are not accessible unavailable on the market. We analyzed later an ip address booter's crucial, and the way by asking several questions that were critical to obtain the best one for your requirements. Another stage for you personally is in order that it is possible to choose on an ip address stresser which is best suited for your digital and budgetary needs to do your research and due-diligence. There are lots of booters available on the market, and you also are bound to discover one that satisfies with your exceptional usecase as well as both your budget.

ARCHIVES

ARCHIVES

Saoráil Faisnéise | Athúsáid Faisnéise ón Earnáil Phoiblí | Twitter Polasa arna dtáirgeadh ag OGCIO | ©Rialtas na hÉireann

IP Stresser
With the increasing preponderance of large-scale distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on websites around the world, applying long-term DDoS defense that will defy these potentially incapacitating assaults is of extreme importance. But, how do you understand your defensive steps will in fact be helpful in a situation? Normally, choosing the right ip address stresser (another title to get a booter) is an occupation that is easier stated than done provided the wide array of products and providers accessible on the web in a number of different price points. Booters come in shapes and numerous sizes, and picking the best one for your needs can be a time consuming undertaking. This is the the reason why we have compiled this special record just for you individually to help you to find the best stresser for the needs that are electronic. Before we dive into the minutiae of choosing from among the very best booters out there, we would like to dissect a ddos-attack functions. The motives behind DDoS attacks are as varied as may be, but they all reveal one principle in keeping: To remove the target site stopping other (legitimate) consumers from obtaining its assets. This denial of service is understood via the use of applications that were unique that floods the device that was targeted hence compelling with web requests, the target to allocate assets apart from legitimate statements. Thus, additional consumers attempting to enter into the goal will encounter exceedingly slow surgery or problem messages. Normally, the host may be overloaded and crash if it is not right optimized to take care of high-pressure and high -load system conditions. They're usually executed with an external or internal assault vector even though numerous forms can be taken by DDoS assaults. An attack vector that is an inside generally takes the type of malicious software which uses the physical hardware assets of the service equipment up, thus making it gradual, incompetent at providing a regular answer to any inbound requests that are external from valid traffic and customers, and treacherous. An attack vector that is outside takes the form of undesirable traffic developed either via a dispersed collection of devices that are networked (additionally called a bot-net) or through actual human beings (such as using a software like LOIC). For this guide's intentions, we'll focus on the attack family that is exterior. Protecting your hosts from inner attacks may require the usage of antimalware applications that's at night scope of the guide. Instead, we will give attention to the kinds of pressure that is different screening alternatives offered to about the net personally to you now, and the best method to pick the right one for the Skype resolver that is distinctive and personal wants. One choice might be to use a main firewall managing program to be able to block incoming requests from various IP addresses that are questionable. Obviously, this option is comparatively fundamental and improbable to be suitable in hit situations which can be more difficult. Also, firewalls mightn't maintain the correct network level as a means to intercept this kind of destructive traffic. Together with DNS solutions and its conventional CDN, CloudFlare also supplies a high tech alternative by leveraging avenue strike boxes in the supply points of the strike and an internationally distributed data center network that will disperse, for protecting your system and server resources. You might think as a distributed protect against a dispersed strike of services like CloudFlare. As a means to assess whether your defensive actions probably will be productive within a a realworld strike in your server resources, you're do-ing to wish to analyze in a managed environment outside those defenses yourself. Many companies all around the globe provide ip address booting services to work as if they are a real world DDoS attack on your own system, to help you perform this testing test which is managed. By analyzing how your defenses respond to the simulated test, you could possibly observe for yourself if your current DDoS defenses are sufficient. All things considered, the worst thing you could do is wait until your system is under attack to gauge the effectiveness of your mitigation option. That is a recipe for catastrophe that individuals desire to allow you to use a skype resolver to stop.. Then let's examine how you will get the IP increaser that is perfect on your equipment and software configuration. Remember the points we touched on above when you see pick a certain merchandise. Based on your personal distinctive settings, many others might be worse than specific products. There is an extensive number of different stress tools that are not inaccessible out there nowadays. They each have distinct capacities, strengths, and weaknesses, to selecting the best one to your testing needs, thereby necessitating an in-depth guide. What types of features would you should attempt to find in the IP stressers you're considering utilizing? We ought to recognize the common features shared among booters that are first rate and notice those are optimal for the particular usecase, to answer this query. To best provide your DDoS rights a run for their money, you're likely to desire to throw at them just as much traffic as possible. Since DDoS assaults can happen on multiple layers, it is necessary to evaluate in case a given stresser is really capable of mimicking these varied forms of strikes. In the minimum, youwill need to make certain that there is a stated booter capable of mimicking attacks on Layer 4 and Layer 7, and that it could run numerous types of programs (such as SYN or RUDY) on those layers. Then you definitely might want to hunt elsewhere, if your nominee service cannot do attacks in this manner. You are also going to want to guarantee that the IP booter you're considering is not incompetent at handling an extreme traffic result over your testing time frame. At a bare minimum, the support may want devoted servers which can be souped up and capable of managing the sorts of extreme demands you will subject it to throughout the testing process. On Layer 4 and Layer 7 DDoS assaults, there are several amplification methods that could be used, including amplification, SSDP amplification, and amplification. The point that is crucial here is that you want to model in the most practical manner possible a realworld attack on your own infrastructure. You'll be when you go to accurately evaluate the effectiveness of your defenses the more amplification tools which are furnished, the better off. A great user interface is essential to plenty of of reasons, particularly when you are coping with a numbers-extensive program like an IP stresser. The booters that are very best will have user interfaces that are geared for fresh customers towards efficiency and availability. Additionally, you might need prior to making a buy choice to drive to get a demonstration to determine how the software looks and operates for you. The best stressers concerning the market will provide customer service that is second to none to you. To test away how efficient a specified business may likely be in providing you top-notch help, we advise that you merely reach out to them via email to find out how lengthy it requires to get an answer, and when that answer provides comprehensive, relevant advice regarding your issue or request advice. Applying this method, you'll have the opportunity to get a rough approximation of how well the firm is getting proper care of current clients and their potentiality. The top booters available on the market will likely let you try up and bring out their assaults economically and immediately. The power for confirmed IP stresser to start several concurrent assaults on your own defenses is an effective strategy to learn how well your systems are designed for the load over long trips. You're going to desire to discover at what price point just how several concurrent connections your ip address booter that is prospective can manage, and that performance is not unavailable for you. The types that are best is planning to have the opportunity to size and handle numerous strikes simultaneously. Another important feature of ip address stressers is the ability to allow them to browse around defensive mechanisms. The best booters around the net HTTP source titles for sites that solutions that are distributed protect is certainly going to are able to solve domain names and for instance CloudFlare. This performance could possibly be a terrific means to fix find out how nicely your dispersed protection service (for instance CloudFlare) can manage attacks that attempt to resolve domains. Let's summarize what we have protected here. Firstly, you discovered how DDoS attacks function, and many of the common characteristics shared among all of their their different types. Afterward, we took a quick look in the different preventative mechanisms that are not accessible unavailable on the market. We analyzed later an ip address booter's crucial, and the way by asking several questions that were critical to obtain the best one for your requirements. Another stage for you personally is in order that it is possible to choose on an ip address stresser which is best suited for your digital and budgetary needs to do your research and due-diligence. There are lots of booters available on the market, and you also are bound to discover one that satisfies with your exceptional usecase as well as both your budget.

Speeches - Aibreán 6th, 2017

Select Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Opening Statement by Robert Watt Secretary General Department of Public Expenditure and Reform April 5th 2017

Introduction

Context: Expenditure Reform and Whole-of-Year Budgetary Process

Expenditure Reporting: Existing Publications

Overview of Expenditure Management Process

Topics Raised by the Committee’s Letter

(i) “Overall Fiscal Position based on Quarter 1 Returns and Briefing on Outturn of Receipts and Expenditure”

(ii) “Engagement Between the Department and the Committee”

(iii) “The Information Requirements of the Committee and the Parliamentary Budget Office.”

(a) Information on expenditure outturns and monthly forecasts

(b) Analysis of and reporting on potential expenditure risks

(iv) “Overview of Expenditure Drivers and risks to the fiscal position [2017-2021]”

Concluding Remarks

IP Stresser

ARCHIVES

ARCHIVES

A notice about cookies