Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Fleming is right. We had a comprehensive debate on these matters on Committee Stage. I do not disagree with the argument that we should always be pushing out the boundaries of scrutiny to ensure that we can take full account in this House and make officers of the State, particularly the Executive, amenable to Dáil oversight.

As I previously stated, non-voted expenditure represents expenditure which the Oireachtas has declared by law to be paid from the Central Fund without annual reference to the Dáil. These are items that are a permanent charge on the State's revenues. They represent those services that are payable out of the Central Fund - many of them are listed in the amendments tabled by Deputy Fleming - by the continuing authority of statute law. We debate them when we pass laws here that this is an ongoing charge that should be paid from the Central Fund. Therefore, they are not subject to the normal annual voted expenditure-type process.

The Central Fund activity is regularly reported. It is in the public domain through the monthly Exchequer statements that the Department of Finance and my Department publish. In addition, the Department of Finance publishes detailed annual accounts of the Central Fund for the previous year, known as the financial accounts. As I explained in some detail to the committee, these accounts contain detailed analysis and classification of receipts and issues of the Central Fund, as well as details of the national debt. In the presentation of the Exchequer figures for this period published this week - I do not know whether Deputy Fleming had a look at them - we disaggregated out the debt servicing elements of it, which was a suggestion of the Deputy, so that it is much clearer.

They must be laid before the Dáil not later than 30 September each year. As discussed on Committee Stage, debt servicing requirements are encompassed in the budgetary arithmetic and are shown in the annual budgetary papers on the presentation of the budget every year. The Bill before us does not deal with debt service or any other Central Fund charge. Consequently, the Bill does not propose any change to the long-standing practice with regard to such non-voted expenditure. Such practices are in accordance with the Constitution and, as I stated on Committee Stage, changing them in the way Deputy Fleming suggests would primarily be a matter for the Minister for Finance rather than for me. I am speaking about treating the annual expenditure voted Estimates in the way I am describing. I understand the transparency issues the Deputy has raised and they are something we can work on.

Even in terms of the Estimates process, we can do much better. The Deputy is right in this regard and I hope we can do this proactively. We will have an opportunity this year as the budget will be in October and all the Estimates must be debated and passed between October and December. Before any euro is expended next year it will have been debated, rather than doing it afterwards, which has been the practice for as long as I am here. This is an innovation in and of itself. This is an evolution rather than a revolution and Deputies will embrace this detailed analysis. I hope more resources will be available to the committee system, particularly if we move to a unicameral House, so we have not only ongoing analysis of expenditure in advance of the money being expended, but also a look at options for expenditure so we will have a real Estimates debate.

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