Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On the Deputy's first question which was related to wages and salaries, he is correct that the reduction in costs is down to the Haddington Road agreement. It is also related to the employment control framework whereby the number of staff the Department can employ is limited by the Department of Finance on a reducing scale. Training and development and incidental expenses under subhead 3 also include a contingency provision of approximately €4 million in the event of a disaster or flood damage to an office or a fire in a premises which has to be reinstated. That is the reason there has been a significant underspend because, happily, last year we did not have to use any of the provision which we will carry forward again this year.