Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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8. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the extent to which spending remains on target and within budget for 2017, with particular reference to any sectors which might have the potential to lead to an overspend by year's end; if any adjustments are likely to be made in high pressure areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10621/17]

Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Is Deputy Durkan satisfied that Question No. 8 has, in effect, already been answered by the Minister?

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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This question refers to the extent to which monitoring takes place with regard to the budget for the current year and the degree to which any identification has been made of possible overspends under various headings and how they might best be handled.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I indicated my answer to this question in reply to an earlier question. To address some of the additional points raised, the expenditure figures for each Department are tracked constantly by my Department. We have now allocated how we expect the expenditure ceilings to be realised per quarter for 2017. We have laid out what the Revised Estimates Volume profile for each Department will be for the year. It is roughly equal for the first, second and third quarters, during which it is expected that there will be between €13 billion and €13.1 billion to be invested and spent. For the final three months of the year, the fourth quarter, we expect the figure to rise to €14.26 billion. It is expected that capital expenditure will increase towards the end of the year which is why the figure increases at that point. The figures are regularly checked and are assesed with all my ministerial and Cabinet colleagues. We have completed the work in laying out how we expect expenditure to materialise across 2017. As always, we are not expecting any Department to overspend in terms of that expenditure ceiling.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for the comprehensive reply. Has any Department edged closer to the red line than others? Have some Departments been better at keeping in mind their obligations to stay within budget? Given the nature and importance of the Minister's job in the overall budgeting context, to what extent is it possible to ensure that any corrective measures that are required can be made?

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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All my colleagues are well aware of the need to stay within the figures I have outlined to the Deputy. It is fair to say that certain Departments are under more policy pressure than others. I spend a considerable amount of time working the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, who has to manage an array of different matters relating to his Department. All of my colleagues are aware of the legal requirement to be inside the figures to which I have referred. This is why I have ongoing contact with most of my colleagues in government to ensure that any issues they raise with me are dealt with inside the framework to which I have already referred.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Of the various elements of the public sector that incurred quite a considerable level of expenditure restrictions and wage cuts during the more severe days of the economic recession, can fairness and equity be applied in return for the sacrifices made by each and all areas in the public sector during that period without placing any other at a disadvantage?

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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We always do our best to be fair to all the different interests that are raised with us. If we consider the question Deputy Calleary put to me a moment ago, the amount of funding for wages that was removed during the period of crisis from our civil and public servants, at €1.4 billion, is exceptionally large.

At €1.4 billion, the income removed from civil and public servants during the crisis was exceptional large. The needs being articulated to me on behalf of civil and public servants are that they want this figure to be fully restored and view pay restoration as fair. However, what I need to do is balance their needs against an agenda of fairness in service delivery. We use a single source of money, namely, the revenue we raise through taxes and State borrowings, to pay public service salaries and cover the service and investment needs which Deputy Durkan and other Deputies frequently raise with me. My aim in government is to balance these competing needs.