Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I answered the question about vacancies last week. I referred the Deputy to the budget statement of the Minister for Finance, who outlined that it was not the intention at that time to tax those gratuities and he would refer back to the matter in December.

On the question of the Estimates, they came in as scheduled last year and will come in this year. It is a matter of controlling expenditure. This is the money that is available and that has been passed by the Houses for these purposes and it would take a supplementary budget to change that. I do not expect there will be a supplementary budget for the Department.

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