Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I always say at this stage that everybody supports the principle behind the motion. I agree that this motion is a good idea because it provides that funds available for a variety, and in some cases, good reasons that were not spent in 2013 can be carried over into 2014 for expenditure.

Rather than make a speech I shall ask some questions in response to the rider provided. We agree with the principle behind the motion. I accept that funding forms part of the appropriations account that we approved during Christmas week and that it was referred to in the Revised Estimates. All of the figures have been built into everything that we have seen up to now. To an extent these are not new figures but we must go through this legal procedure in order to finalise the issue.

I shall take a quick look through the voluminous amount of charts supplied. I thank the Minister of State for the information. Does he have a figure for the amount of money that was surrendered by the Departments because it could not be carried over? On reading the documentation I can see that €10 million was surrendered by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine which could not be carried over; €11 million was surrendered by the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources; and youth justice surrendered €7.8 million. A significant amount of moneys was unspent and, under different subheadings, only 10% can be carried forward. Some of the amounts unspent were more than 10% of the 2014 expenditure and, therefore, could not be carried forward. Some of it was surrendered to the Department and so could not to be carried forward here today.

I read through the charts as quickly as I could when the Minister of State was speaking. Let me give more examples. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government surrendered €2.5 million that was for landfill remediation, €7.5 million that was for farm grants and €375,000 that was for the Marine Institute; the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine surrendered about €10 million in total; the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources surrendered about €12 million; the Department of Transport, Tourism surrendered less than €1 billion; youth justice surrendered €7.8 million; and the Prison Service surrendered approximately €4 million. I apologise for not getting my homework done sufficiently in advance. Definitely, some €50 million was surrendered. I ask the Minister of State to give us the figure for the amount of money that was not carried forward.