Vol. 501 No. 2
51 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Finance if the three year financial envelopes agreed with line Departments prior to the 1999 budget represent the allocations to those Vote groups over the relevant periods; the plans, if any, he has for developing the multi-annual budgeting system over the next year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5445/99]
With my 1999 budget I published projections showing expenditure by individual Vote groups for 2000 and 2001 on a "no-policy-change" basis. These projections are included in tables 4(a) and 5(a) of the Budget 1999 – Statistics and Tables document included with the 1999 budget folder which was circulated to all Members of the Oireachtas on budget day, 2 December 1998.
Table 4(a) deals with current expenditure and table 5(a) deals with capital expenditure. The figures for Vote groups in these tables are not financial envelopes; they are projections of the cost in 2000 and 2001 of the post-budget level of services in 1999.
These tables also include a provision for unallocated current and capital expenditure. Total current and capital expenditure in 2000 and 2001 as shown in these tables – that is, the "no policy change" projections plus the unallocated amount – are consistent with the Government's 4 per cent limit for the growth in net current spending and a 5 per cent limit for increases in capital spending.
In my budget speech I said I would address the final phase of the move to multi-annual expenditure budgeting, which will involve the Government making decisions on the allocation of resources across all Vote groups, and that decisions by the Government on this issue by the end of the first quarter of 1999 will allow Departments ample time to plan their spending in 2000 and 2001. Work in this regard is in progress in my Department.
