Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

When we took the Revised Estimates in July, there were certain figures for projected expenditure which we were told by the Department were reflective of a spirit of prudence. For example, the allocation for legal fees was €2.1 million greater than the corresponding figure for 2012. Will that type of approach continue into 2014? If some of that prudential allocation were pruned there might be potential savings of millions across the different subheads, which could be used to offset some of the cuts affecting particular schemes.