Tom Parlon (Laois-Offaly, Progressive Democrats)

I do not want to encourage that. Senator Higgins referred to misappropriation. I am very proud, however, to be part of a Government and a Department of Finance that has spent €29 billion in the last year. In spite of this, we should take note of common sense points about getting value for money, an absolute priority of every Minister and Department.

There has been much hype all year about spending being out of control. The Government budgeted for a 14% expenditure increase and the Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy, said all along, to the disbelief of the Opposition, that he would stay within budget. The actual overspend in the Estimates is 1.7%. This does not take into account savings that accrued across Departments. When included, the overspend is a mere 0.2%. It would be very difficult to achieve greater accuracy, particularly given the pressure to fund demand-led schemes. The bulk of extra expenditure was incurred in the Departments of Health and Children and Education and Science.

I recently brought my own Supplementary Estimate for the Houses of the Oireachtas and the European Parliament before the Committee of Public Accounts. One of the headings under which there was extra expenditure was severance and termination payments. I am thankful that the Department of Finance was not entirely accurate in predicting the outcome of the general election. It predicted an average turnover for both Deputies and Senators. In fact, we have 55 new Deputies. As 55 Deputies either moved to this House or left altogether, termination and pension liabilities, therefore, increased. I think we have 35 new Senators, ten of whom moved across from Dáil Éireann. That is one area where the Department did not quite match its financial expertise. I probably would not have featured in its reckoning.