Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 45: To ask the Minister for Finance the sources of the principal appropriations in aid that recur on an annual basis and which are used to offset current expenditure in each Government department; his estimated amount of same in respect of 2009; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32781/09]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Appropriations-in-aid are Departmental receipts which may be retained by a Department or Office to offset expenses instead of being paid into the Exchequer Account of the Central Fund. For the purposes of presentation of the overall public finances, expenditure by the Social Insurance Fund and the National Training Fund are treated in a similar fashion to appropriations-in-aid in that they are deducted from overall gross expenditure.

The type and nature of appropriations-in-aid vary across Departments, and include the health levy, the pension-related deduction on remuneration, pension contributions by public sector employees and receipts from the EU (e.g. from the European Social Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development etc).

Further details are set out in the 2009 Revised Estimates Volume, published in April 2009. The estimated amount of appropriations-in-aid, and fund expenditure, for 2009 were also published in the Revised Estimates Volume. Total appropriations-in-aid and fund expenditure, i.e. the difference between gross total and net total Voted expenditure, is estimated to be €16,503 million for 2009.

The table below shows a percentage breakdown of total appropriations-in-aid for 2009.

*€80 million of the Pension-related deduction impacts on Gross Expenditure through the Local Government Fund