asked the Minister for Finance if he will detail the saving referred to by the Minister for Local Government in his statement on the 19th July, 1974, concerning the availability of money for SDA loans.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - SDA Loans.
28.
Savings amounting to almost £6 million, or two-thirds of the additional allocation of £9 million capital for the local authority house purchase loans scheme, announced by the Minister for Local Government on 19th July last, have been identified over the range of Government spending programmes.
As the Deputy is aware, expenditure allocations are kept under continual review over the course of the budget period and, from time to time, they may be varied in response to sectoral needs and resource availability. Because of the element of seasonal fluctuation in these variations it is not the practice to give details of them in advance of the publication of actual expenditure figures at the end of the financial period. The savings made available to finance the extra spending on house purchase loans have been integrated into the overall budgetary review process and I do not, therefore, propose to detail the individual expenditure headings involved.
May I ask the Minister if he would agree that the relatively lengthy reply amounts to saying that either he does not know or cannot say what savings are involved? And further, that the statement by the Minister for Local Government to the effect that the amount of money involved was secured by savings is not correct since the Minister refers to the £6 million saving as against £9 million?
What the Statement of the Minister for Local Government said was that most of the money provided would be found from savings.
Is the Minister sure of that?
Yes, I have the text here of 19th July, 1974, saying that most of the additional money to be provided now would be found from savings elsewhere in the public sector. Two-thirds have already been identified and, as I say, when the final accounts are completed the detailed figures will be available.
May we take it that some of the savings, if not all of them, would arise in areas other than those that are the responsibility of the Minister for Local Government?
They will be across a wide range of activities in capital expenditure.
They would not be confined to the activities of the Department of Local Government?
No, they would not be.
In other words, the Minister for Local Government was, as usual, trying to put a cloud around it but the reality is that there is no basis whatever for what he said.
Not at all. There is a very good basis for what he said: "Savings elsewhere in public expenditure".
Which we cannot be told about. The Minister for Finance does not know what they are.
You have two-thirds of it already.