Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Estimate for pensions for 2016 is approximately €4 million less than it was last year. If, as it appears, more people will be in receipt of a pension, how will it be possible to spend less?

The Estimate under A2 for 2015 is €218.6 million. This is over €3 million more than the original Revised Estimate for 2015, published in late 2014. For each of the four financial years, from 2012 to 2015, the original pension Estimate made at the previous year's end never came within €1 million of the actual outturn. We are always quite a bit off. Has the Department provided each year an Estimate for Army pensions less than the outturn for the preceding year? In other words, was the Estimate for 2012 less than the outturn for 2011?

In light of this continuous structural under-provision for pensions, does the Minister of State expect, or remotely expect, the pension Estimate here to be within €1 million of the outturn for 2016? Is there any sanction under the Public Sector Management Act, or is there a budgetary rule that sanctions structural under-provision? Does the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, or did the Department of Finance, impose it on the Department of Defence?