The Minister will be in charge of public expenditure. The gross expenditure in this year's Estimate is €57 billion. The net expenditure which the Minister says he is responsible for is €46 billion, a difference of €11 billion. The figure mainly refers to appropriations-in-aid. In his Second Stage speech he said he has an implied role over the appropriations-in-aid to be raised in various Government Departments before they settle on their net Estimates, but the Bill does not state that. It does not include any reference to the Minister who is responsible for public expenditure being responsible for certain revenues to be collected in connection with appropriations in the Department. It is a major gap. The points I made on Second Stage are still valid and are the reason I tabled the amendment.

See this item in context