Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 November 2021
93. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the number of Departments that have requested to roll over all or part of their budget to 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55389/21]
View answerFor the purposes of answering this question, I presume the Deputy is referring to the capital carryover mechanism, which is given statutory provision under Section 91 of the Finance Act, 2004.
Nineteen votes have made a request to carryover capital from their 2021 allocations into 2022.
Capital carryover is in place to assist Departments with the management of their capital spend across years to alleviate pressures and delays caused by timing issues and the impact of unexpected occurrences. This procedure is also designed to promote value-for-money in the use of capital funding, in particular by mitigating any incentive on the part of public bodies or Departments to spend any remaining capital allocation at end-year in an accelerated manner rather than surrender it to the Exchequer.
A maximum of 10% of the original capital allocation is permitted to be carried over into the following year, which allows for the capital funding to be drawn down in a considered and deliberate manner that maximises public benefit. This only applies to capital expenditure and not current expenditure.
Details of the amounts and the distribution of capital carryover into 2022 have not yet been finalised, but the particulars will be specified by subhead in the Revised Estimates Volume 2022 and in Schedule 2 of the Appropriation Act 2021, both of which will be published in December.
To allow Departments spend the capital carryover amounts in 2022, I will make a Ministerial Order specifying the definitive amounts of deferred surrender by subhead and will lay it before the Oireachtas, a resolution approving the draft deferred surrender Order must then be passed by Dáil Éireann.
I am subsequently required to sign the Order into effect no later than 31 March of next year. Once the Order is made, the carryover amounts become a first charge against the subheads concerned. If the carryover sums are not spent in the year of carryover, they must be surrendered to the Central Fund.
