Michael Lowry (Tipperary North, Independent)
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Question 154: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the amount of unspent money returned by her Department to the Department of Finance each year since 1997; the total departmental budget for each year since 1997; the projects for which this money was originally earmarked; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20442/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Details of the total annual budget for my Department and the percentage of the budget that was underspent in each year are given in the table below. The Deputy should note that the annual Estimates and budgetary process is not generally constructed on the basis of individual projects but that total expenditure is broken into a number of subheads. Underspends and overspends can occur in any of the Department's expenditure subheads for a number of reasons such as an over-run or an under-run in demand-led expenditure such as pensions or the student support schemes. The published annual Appropriation Accounts indicate for each subhead where the full allocation has not been utilised. Should the Deputy require more information on a particular aspect of my Department's budget, I would be happy to provide it.