asked the Minister for Finance if he will state in respect of each Estimate in the Book of Estimates for 1952-53 the amount of expenditure contemplated upon reserve stocks and the total of such expenditure.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Expenditure on Reserve Stocks, 1952-53.
I assume that the Deputy's reference to "reserve stocks" is intended in the sense in which that term was used in the 1951 Budget statement.
The only item in the 1952-53 Estimates which is specifically described as "Reserve Stocks" appears in sub-head M of the Estimate for Defence. The relevant provision — £235,000 — may be explained as follows: £200,000 for made-up uniforms and accessories for troops in the event of a general mobilisation; and £35,000 for cloth for Army uniforms. This expenditure is similar in purpose to the complementary expenditure on warlike stores and should obviously be charged in the same way.
Apart from this £235,000, there is provision in the 1952-53 Estimates for the purchase of stores for departmental use in addition to normal current purchases as follows:—
Posts and Telegraphs. — £394,700, made up of £61,500 for miscellaneous stores, bicycles and spare parts for vehicles; £35,000 for uniform clothing for postal workers, etc.: £63,700 for watermarked paper for the manufacture of stamps, etc., and £234,500 for poles, wires, fittings and miscellaneous stores required for engineering maintenance as distinct from engineering construction.
Defence. — £1,750, made up of £250 for tyres and tubes for bicycles and £1,500 for 1,500 rolls of flannelette for cleaning material in respect of small arms.
Gaeltacht Services. — £85,500, made up of £2,500 for spinning machinery, £5,800 for woollen yarns and other materials for the knit-wear industries, £44,900 for plush and other materials, including dolls' eyes, for toys and £32,300 for wool and wool oil for spinning.
Office of Public Works. — £30,000, mainly for wire ropes, steel plate and excavator bucket parts.
Lands. — £1,700 for steel tubing for lining wells.
In all cases, the expenditure is intended merely to assist the carrying on by Departments of their ordinary current services. No expenditure on materials and equipment for capital purposes, e.g., the extension of the telephone system, is included in the net Estimates for Supply Services and, therefore, no charge is proposed against current revenue for such purposes.
In case the Deputy really believes that the expenditure detailed above should be met from borrowing, might I remind him that a similar amount for such expenditure was charged against current revenue in 1950-51 and that my predecessor referred to the matter as follows in his 1951 Budget statement (Dáil Debates, Volume 125, No. 13, column 1885):—
"This gratifying buoyancy of the revenue yielded in all a net addition of £1,651,000 to the Budget figures and resulted in a surplus of revenue over current expenditure of £286,000, which helped in a small way to finance the capital programme. The result can be viewed with particular satisfaction because of the accumulation of reserve stocks out of current revenue."
These, in fact, are not reserve stocks. They are replenishment stocks.