Charlie McCreevy
Ceist:49 Mr. McCreevy asked the Minister for Finance his view on whether the contingency fund set aside for 1998 and 1999 is adequate in view of hepatitis claims, BSE claims and the deafness claims of Army personnel. [7732/97]
Written Answers. - Contingency Fund.
The Deputy will be aware that in my budget address, I indicated that when making plans over several years, it is prudent to provide a reserve against unforeseen factors outside the control of the Government which may impact on the budget position for future years. While some of these factors which include variability in tax buoyancy as well as exceptional costs in the area of public expenditure are likely to be positive as well as negative, it was deemed prudent to allow for a negative net impact on the budgetary aggregates. As a result, the Government made a general contingency provision of £175 million for 1998 and £325 for 1999.
With regard to the factors mentioned by the Deputy in his question, these are potential costs on the Exchequer which, while largely outside the control of the Government, are not unforeseen and as such, prudent provision has been made within the overall budgetary aggregates to meet the costs. Furthermore, there is nothing to suggest at this stage that these costs cannot be met from within the planned budgetary targets for those years.