John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

With regard to 10a, the motion to allow for the carryover of unspent capital included in the Appropriation Act 2005, to be spent in 2006, the Minister for Finance is required to make an order no later than 31 March. Clearly the carryover sum of unspent capital from the previous year could not be spent on the particular capital purposes until the order is approved by Dáil Éireann and signed by the Minister.

In regard to what Deputy Burton said, the Minister for Finance, in his statement to the Dáil last January, referred to information which had been received from the Department of Health and Children, which had been advised by the Health Service Executive that there could be some alterations to its estimated 2005 outturn.

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