Vol. 537 No. 1
27 Mr. D. Carey asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the discussions which have taken place between his Department and the Department of Finance on a circular encouraging all Departments to establish savings in the region of £500 million; the likely effects of this on his plans for 2002; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15166/01]
I refer the Deputy to the reply given by the Minister for Finance to Question No. 87 on 3 April 2001. In his reply, the Minister stated that 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. This course of action was in response to the prospect of overruns on budget day spending levels which arose during the preparation of the 2001 Revised Estimates Volume and which were caused mainly by the measures agreed by the EU Council of Agriculture Ministers to deal with BSE.
In response to the request by the Minister for Finance, my Department identified a number of programme estimates where changes were warranted based on the latest data available on numbers of recipients and the value of their entitlements. These changes did not involve any changes in qualifying conditions or rates of payment. They were purely estimation changes.
Similar changes to the projections for 2002 were also warranted and made. Being estimation changes, they do not affect my plans for the year.
