Vol. 533 No. 6
87 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Finance if he has issued a memo to other Government Departments seeking savings of £500 million in expenditure; the reason the memo was issued; the savings sought from each Department; the areas in which he believes such savings can be made; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9734/01]
The 2001 Revised Estimates for Public Services were presented to the Dáil last week – 29 March 2001. As in previous years, the REV provides for the expenditure measures announced in the budget together with any other adjustments to expenditure which have arisen since the budget.
This year, the prospect of additional overruns on budget day spending levels arose during the course of preparation of the REV. The most significant factor related to the cost of the measures agreed by the EU Council of Agriculture Ministers to deal with BSE. Other contributory factors included the Buckley report, additional costs relating to asylum seekers and a wide range of other technical and estimating factors.
To ensure that aggregate spending remained within the overall limit set at budget day, all Departments were asked to review their programmes in the light of the most up-to-date information available to them and to identify ways in which spending could be reduced.
In the case of current expenditure, the various measures came to about £200 million and involved a critical review of previous costings which resulted in certain estimated savings, the emergence of higher than projected increases in appropriations-in-aid and further savings arising from the rephasing of existing projects. In the case of capital expenditure, the various measures came to about £300 million and involved estimated savings resulting from a review of up-to-date expenditure profiles, savings arising from an anticipated slowdown on some property acquisitions and savings arising from a rephasing of certain projects.
The combined effect of the various requests for additional funding and the revised costings which emerged from this review is that the aggregate level of expenditure provided for in the REV is effectively the same as the level set on budget day; it is, in fact, £6 million lower than the budget day level. Overall, there has been an increase of £245 million in current expenditure, £235 million of which is related to BSE measures, and a decrease of £251 million in capital expenditure
