asked the Minister for Finance if he will state if he regards the sum of £500,000 provided in the Supplementary Estimate for the Office of the Minister for Agriculture for the land rehabilitation project and water supplies as a sum which should be met out of taxation in the current financial year, or if he regards only part of this sum as proper to be met out of taxation; and, if so, if he will state the particulars of the expenditure in respect of such sum which is to be met out of taxation.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Expenditure out of Taxation.
asked the Minister for Finance if he will state if he regards the sum of £1,710,689 provided in the revised Estimate for the Department of Defence for expenditure on warlike stores as a sum which should be met out of taxation in the current financial year.
asked the Minister for Finance if he will state if he regards the sum of £555,000 provided in the Supplementary Estimate for the Office of the Minister for Agriculture as a repayable advance to Comhlucht Siúicre Éireann Teoranta in respect of the importation of superphosphates as a sum which should be met out of taxation in the current financial year.
I propose, with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, to take Questions Nos. 11, 12 and 13, together.
The subject-matter of these questions and the general principles with which they are concerned will be adequately dealt with in the Budget statement, which I do not intend to anticipate. As I said in my statement when submitting the Vote on Account, "the pros and cons of setting apart certain items of expenditure in the Supply Services and dubbing them as capital and proclaiming that they are proper to be met from borrowing, have been sufficiently discussed before this, and I do not intend to enter upon the subject now" (Volume 137, column 166).
Could the Minister say when we will hear the Budget statement?
Perhaps the Deputy would put that question to the Tánaiste when he is announcing the Order of Business.