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Seanad Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 21 Dec 1983

Vol. 102 No. 9

Electoral (Amendment) Bill, 1983. - Appropriation Bill, 1983 [ Certified Money Bill ]: Second and Subsequent Stages.

Question proposed: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

The Appropriation Bill is brought before the Oireachtas each year to give statutory effect to the individual 1983 Estimates for the supply services, both non-capital and capital, including Supplementaries.

Section 1 of the Bill appropriates to the various services set out in the Schedule the sum of £5,682 million comprising the original Estimates totalling £5,605 milland and Supplementary Estimates of £77 million; it also authorises the use of certain departmental receipts as appropriations-in-aid.

This year's Appropriation Bill is the last to include major expenditures in respect of the day-to-day running costs of the postal and telecommunication services. Next year with the vesting of these services in An Bord Telecom and An Post, which will, in effect, be new State-sponsored bodies, most of the expenditure formerly incurred by the Department of Posts and Telegraphs will be transferred to the new bodies, and will not be reflected in the Exchequer accounts. There will also, of course, be a reduction in Exchequer revenues with the income arising from the provision of postal, telecommunications and related services accruing directly to the new bodies rather than to the Exchequer, as at present.

May I have a copy of the Minister's speech?

We agreed not to have a debate on this.

That will be all right.

Perhaps we should wait a few minutes.

We should continue.

It is extremely important that the House be aware of the implications of these developments for the budgetary arithmetic — major changes in the Exchequer aggregates and budgetary balances will result.

The effect of the changes on Exchequer finances for 1984 are best understood by adjusting the actual 1983 outturn to show the position which would have applied had vesting of the new bodies concerned gone ahead from the beginning of this year. These adjustments show that the position would have been that the 1983 current budget deficit would have been increased by some £130 million and the Exchequer borrowing requirement by over £100 million. As I indicated in the Dáil, the changes will be of an accounting nature only. The public finances, overall, will be no better or worse. Total public borrowing will not be increased by the change, only its distribution between the Exchequer and non-Exchequer bodies.

The documentation for the 1984 budget will include data on what the 1983 outturn would have been if the new bodies had been vested at the start of this year. This will facilitate a meaningful comparison of budgetary figures for 1983 and 1984.

The 1983 expenditure on the supply services will be very close to the original budget targets. A number of factors would have pushed the outturn significantly ahead of the budget provision. The new public service pay agreement, payment of the double week to certain social welfare pensioners at Christmas and other additional social welfare costs falling on the Exchequer, including a shortfall in PRSI receipts, would between them have added over £100 million to the Government's target for the non-capital supply services. But because of the action taken by the Government in July, the budget target for supply services expenditure will not be exceeded. Clearly, the days when public expenditure was out of control are now past. The Government are determined that expenditure will stay under control and that massive over-runs of the sort which occurred in 1980 and 1981 will not be repeated. I commend the Bill to the House.

It has been agreed between the various groups that a debate on the substance of the Appropriation Bill will be held on 17 and 18 January.

Question put and agreed to.
Agreed to take remaining Stages today.
Bill put through Committee, reported without recommendation, received for final consideration and ordered to be returned to the Dáil.
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