Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Bill is an essential element of financial housekeeping that must be concluded by both Houses of the Oireachtas before the end of the year.

The Bill serves two primary purposes. First, it is necessary to authorise in law all of the expenditure that has been undertaken in 2018 on the basis of the Estimates that have been voted on by the Dáil during the year. Section 1 and Schedule 1 set out the amounts to be appropriated for supply services. These relate to the amounts included in the Revised Estimates for 2018 voted by the Dáil earlier this year and the Supplementary Estimates voted by the Dáil on 12 December. These Estimates amount to €50.9 billion. The comparable amount in the Appropriation Act 2017 was €46.7 billion. The amount to be appropriated this year, therefore, represents an increase of €4.2 billion on last year’s net voted expenditure.

The second key purpose of the Bill is to provide a legal basis for spending to continue into 2019. The passage of the Bill allows continued funding, in the period before the 2019 Estimates are approved, in the areas of social welfare payments from the social protection Vote, Exchequer pay and pensions, and other voted expenditure. If the Bill were not enacted before the end of December, there would be no authority to spend any voted moneys in 2019 from the start of January until approval of the 2019 Estimates, since this authority for 2019, as contained in the Central Fund (Permanent Provisions) Act 1965, is based on the amounts provided for in the Appropriation Act 2018.

Under the rolling multi-annual capital envelopes introduced in budget 2004 Departments may carry over, from the current year to the following year, unspent capital up to a maximum of 10% of voted capital. The multi-annual system is designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the management by Departments and agencies of capital programmes and projects. It recognises the difficulties inherent in the planning and profiling of capital expenditure and acknowledges that capital projects may be subject to delays. The carryover facility allows for a portion of unspent moneys, which would have been lost to the capital programmes and projects concerned under the annual system of allocating capital, to be made available for spending on programme priorities in the subsequent year.

The Appropriation Act determines definitively the capital amounts that may be carried over to the following year. The aggregate amount of proposed capital carryover from 2018 into 2019 is €93 million, which represents 1.6% of the total Exchequer capital programme of almost €6 billion for 2018. The amount carried over from 2017 into 2018 was €70.3 million.

The proposed amounts to be carried over by Vote are set out in Schedule 2. The 2019 Revised Estimates Volume sets out detailed financial and key performance information for Departments and offices. In Part II of the Estimates, for each Vote availing of the capital carryover facility, a table is included listing the amounts to be deferred by subhead.

Certain Exchequer liabilities and social welfare payments are due for payment by electronic funds transfer on 1 and 2 January 2019. With the banking system closed on 1 January 2019, funding will need to be in place in departmental bank accounts before the end of this year to meet those liabilities on a timely basis. That is the most fundamental part of the Bill and on that basis, I will ask the House to give its approval.

In addition, An Post needs to be prefunded before the end of the 2018 in respect of certain benefit payments due in the first week of January 2019, in order to physically transfer cash to their network of post offices throughout the country.

These Exchequer pay and pension and social welfare payments will form part of the supply services for 2019, and, consequently, the funds to cover these costs will be included in amounts disbursed from the Central Fund to the Paymaster General’s account as part of the 2019 supply issues. These costs will come under moneys voted in 2019 in respect of which the usual processes and mechanisms for voted moneys in 2019 will apply.

In line with last year, section 3 includes a specific provision to allow for an advance, not exceeding €250 million, from the Central Fund to the Paymaster General’s supply account, with this advance then being repaid to the Central Fund in January.

The signed Act is required by the Comptroller and Auditor General for clearance of the end-year issues from the Exchequer. Under Article 25.2.1° of the Constitution the President may not sign a Bill earlier than the fifth day after the date on which the Bill is presented to him.

However, there is provision in Article 25.2.2° whereby, at the request of the Government, with the prior concurrence of Seanad Éireann, the President may sign a Bill on an earlier date than the fifth day mentioned. In view of the urgency of this Bill, the provision in Article 25.2.2° is sought and a motion to this effect is placed before the Seanad. Such an earlier signature motion has also been sought for the Appropriation Bill in previous years.

I remarked at the outset that the legislation is an essential element of housekeeping which those of us in both Houses of the Oireachtas are required to undertake. Its passage will authorise in law all of the expenditure that has been undertaken in 2018 on the basis of the Estimates voted by the Dáil during the year. Of fundamental importance to those who depend on our essential public services, the passage of the Bill will also ensure that payments funded from voted expenditure in 2018, such as housing assistance payments, jobseeker’s allowance, disability allowance, pay across the public sector, and all other pay and pensions funded from voted money, can continue to be funded in 2019 in the period before the Dáil approves the 2019 Estimates.I commend the Bill to the House.