Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 6 October 2020
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised)
Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source
Many of the questions I planned to ask have been covered. I will not rehash those issues. I refer to the section of the Estimate relating to law charges. The Estimate for 2019 was €11.3 million, but the final outturn for 2019 was significantly in excess of that figure. Will the Minister of State explain that overrun? Is the Estimate for this year too conservative in that regard in light of the higher amount in 2019?
I refer to the allocations relating to the Ombudsman. I would expect that in a year such as this, there would be more queries in that regard.
I attended the meeting last week of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight.
The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, IFAC, stated clearly that the Government should provide medium-term projections. A period of five years should be examined, and the Government should set out what it expects the debt to be in that context. In May, for example, IFAC gave projections based on three scenarios, and the Government should be taking that on board. I ask the Minister of State to comment.
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