Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

This amendment proposed by the Deputy opposite will give the Minister for Finance the function of making recommendations as to the level of appropriations-in-aid that should be raised. Appropriations-in-aid are receipts that accrue directly to Departments or their agencies and which may be retained by those bodies, to offset the cost of delivering services, rather than submitted to the Exchequer.

This is a matter that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform will discuss with each Department in the course of the Estimates negotiations. As Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform I will manage these issues within the annual approved expenditure amount agreed by the Government. It would not seem necessary also to provide a statutory role for the Minister for Finance in regard to these matters and for that reason I do not propose to accept the amendment.

In essence, the role of the Minister for Finance will be to establish the envelope of expenditure, that would be then presented to me and I will negotiate with the line Departments, having regard to appropriations-in-aid that accrue to different functions and different line Departments. I believe that is the best way of doing it.

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