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.