Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Fianna Fåil will be supporting this Bill, which, as alluded to by the Minister of State, is technical legislation. We will agree to support passage of the Bill through all Stages in the Oireachtas. As stated by the Minister of State, the Bill provides statutory authority for the amounts voted by the Dáil during the year. These amounts include the original Estimates, Revised Estimates and Supplementary Estimates. However, it would be helpful if the Minister could outline if the recent announcement that RTÉ is to receive an extra €10 million from the Government and reports that an emergency fund is to be established for childcare providers have been provided for in any of the Revised Estimates since budget day. In my opinion, it is a politicised move if this has taken place without any consultation with my party since October given that we had budget discussions and facilitated its passing. I ask the Minister of State to comment on that issue in his closing statement.

The sum of €54,582,294,000 is granted from the Central Fund to the proper supply of services. The sum of €2,691,119,000 is the appropriations-in-aid. Appropriations-in-aid are revenues received by the particular area that are retained by that area for the use of expenditure. In other words, they do not go to the Central Fund. For example, the Director of Public Prosecutions might have a gross expenditure of €43,719,000 but because of appropriations-in-aid of €910,000, the amount it would need to extract from the Central Fund is €42,809,000.

The Bill also provides for sums deferred into the year ended 31 December 2020. The term "capital supply service and purpose" means a supply service voted by the Dáil, the purpose of which is to create an asset intended for the use on a continuing basis with an expected life of more than one year. These are sums for which surrender is deferred into 2020. This is mostly salaries and expenses for 14 offices and Departments of Government to allow for the continuing supply of services. We note that many of the tables alluded to by the Minister of State are referenced, and in many cases, contained in the Bill. I ask that in his concluding remarks the Minister of State respond to the contention I have made, which I hope is not the case.

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