Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As I outlined in my opening statement, even with additional expenditure on military pensions, the overall group allocation - that is, the two Votes taken together - will not be exceeded in 2015, as there have been savings under Vote 36. The straight answer to the Deputy's question is "No." Essentially, we are funding the extra that we need. We could talk about the formalities of the Estimate where savings are made, but, essentially, nothing in terms of equipment and capital expenditure will be impacted by this. This is really about funding a slight shortfall in pensions with the money that is saved as a result of the time differential in terms of recruiting to fill the positions of people who are leaving. I would like to see our pension Vote increase slightly, but we need to negotiate that at budget time with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. I would like our pension Vote to be slightly higher than it is, but I think we did very well in the budget process this year and I think we have to take our overall Vote in terms of both Estimates in the round, which is what we are trying to do.