Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am in the Oireachtas almost 30 years and it is normal for Supplementary Estimates to be introduced at the end of the financial year. There are never Supplementary Estimates early in the year, as the Deputy will be aware. That is the way the process is structured. If it needs to be structured differently, let us have a debate about that. This has been the way for as long as I have been a Member and I am sure long before that. Supplementary Estimates are introduced at the end of the financial year when the full picture is determined because quite often savings are made in other areas of the same Vote and they can be transferred and until a Minister has the full picture, he or she cannot determine the timing or the amount of a Supplementary Estimate. This, therefore, is normal. If the committee thinks a different system might be appropriate, it can examine alternatives.