Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The National Forum on Europe received a good increase in this year's Estimate and it is more or less on line to meet its allocation. We are examining next year's allocation but it has been upped significantly. The forum does not have expenditure difficulties. It is in a good position and has a good base from which to fulfil its remit and take as active a role as the forum and its members wish it to take. I do not see a difficulty for the 2007 Estimate at this stage.

To date, €3.3 million has been spent by the Moriarty tribunal. As Deputy Sargent noted, there is a total provision of €8 million in this subhead, a substantial portion of which was provided to meet the payment of legal costs arising from the award of costs to parties appearing before the tribunal, should its work be completed this year. That estimate was based on the work before the tribunal sought an extension until January. It was intended that when the work was complete, the decisions would then be made on the legal fees, which would then have to be paid. Whether that will happen this year, I do not know, but my Department will continue to closely monitor expenditure in the subhead. Any savings likely to be achieved will be made available to the Department of Finance but, obviously, we will have to include them in the Estimate again next year because they will ultimately have to be paid whenever the final report is published. There has been no change of dates with regard to the report since I last reported to the House.

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