Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann approves the following Order in draft:

Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2012,

copies of which have been laid in draft form before Dáil Éireann on 7 March 2012.

We have maintained a significant public capital programme despite the difficult budgetary circumstances of recent number of years. This programme was outlined in the medium-term Exchequer framework for infrastructure and capital investment. It will provide some €17 billion over the next five years to address remaining infrastructural defects in key social and economic areas. The ministerial order before the House today is a technical instrument. Its purpose is to allow the Dáil to approve formally the expenditure by Departments and agencies in the current financial year of capital moneys carried over from the previous year. The capital carryover facility forms an integral part of the five-year rolling multi-annual capital envelopes that were introduced in 2004. The multi-annual system is designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the management by Departments and agencies of capital programmes and projects. The carryover facility means that moneys which would have been lost to the capital programmes and projects concerned, under the annual system of allocating capital, can now be made available for spending on programme priorities in the subsequent year.

The introduction of the multi-annual capital investment system has been a major positive factor in the roll-out of capital programmes. Apart from allowing for resources that would otherwise be unspent by a Department to be made available for that Department in the following year, the multi-annual capital system has given greater medium-term financial security to Departments and implementing agencies. This, in turn, has facilitated better medium-term planning of programmes and projects and helped to eliminate the potential for wasteful spending on non-essential works to ensure full capital allocations are spent before the end of the year.

The Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866 generally requires the surrender of unspent Exchequer moneys to the Central Fund at the end of each financial year. However, section 91 of the Finance Act 2004, which gives legal effect to capital carryover, allows the carryover of unspent voted Exchequer capital to the following year of up to 10% of capital by Vote, by deferring this surrender requirement, subject to certain conditions. One of those conditions is that the amounts of capital carried over by Vote be specified in the annual Appropriation Act of the year from which the carryover is proposed. The actual decision in principle on the amounts of carryover by Vote are therefore determined in the Appropriation Act. The Dáil again has an opportunity to endorse the amounts in its decision on the Revised Estimates Volume, which shows the capital carryover amounts separately in the relevant Votes. The carryover amounts provided for in the Appropriation Act are required to be confirmed in an order to be-----

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