Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Question 157: To ask the Minister for Finance if the moneys allocated to his Department in this year's Estimates will be fully and appropriately spent during 2006; if he has identified any allocated moneys which are not needed by his Department; and, if so, the amount of such moneys. [30234/06]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The 2006 revised estimate for my Department's vote is €110.831 million. Moneys from the Vote will be fully and appropriately spent in accordance with the ambit of the Vote. While the Outturn for the Vote will not, of course, be known until after end year, expenditure trends to date suggest a possible saving of the order of €10 million may arise at end 2006. Any Savings will be surrendered to the Exchequer or carried over to 2007, in accordance with the law.

Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)
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Question 158: To ask the Minister for Finance the areas of overspend in the Border Midland Western regions as stated by him in September 2006; if he will elaborate on the expectations of the Government to the spending plan for the BMW region from now until 2008 as stated; the improvement the area can expect by 2008; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30245/06]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The National Development Plan/Community Support Framework (NDP/CSF) 2000-2006 is implemented through seven Operational Programmes. The most recent expenditure data on the Plan relates to the period to the end December 2005. This data is set out in Tables 1 and 2 below. Data for first six months of 2006 will be available at end October 2006 following the meetings of the Operational Programme Monitoring Committees.

Table 1 sets out the indicative total expenditure forecasts and the estimated total expenditure incurred under each Operational Programme in the Border, Midland and Western (BMW) Region for the period January 2000 to December 2005.

Profiles and Expenditure data includes all NDP sources of funding; Exchequer, EU and Private.

The Exchequer forecast and estimated Exchequer expenditure incurred under each operational programme in the BMW Region for the period January 2000 to December 2005 is set out in Table 2.

It can be seen from the data presented in Table 2 that the Exchequer contribution to the BMW Region under the Economic and Social Infrastructure Operational Programme (ESIOP) has exceeded its original target by €516 million to the end of 2005. However, a complete picture of extra expenditure in the region, over that committed in the lifetime of the NDP, will not be available until the full year expenditure data for 2006 are analysed and reported at the Spring 2007 meetings of the Operational Programme Monitoring Committees.

The latest information indicates that overall gross expenditure in the Border, Midlands and West (BMW) region is running at €12.1 billion for the six year period 2000-2005, with the Exchequer component running at €10.7 billion. The information also indicates that the overall outturn for the NDP is expected to be near to forecast by the end of 2006, but with some over-performance and underperformance of expenditure taking place within the Operational Programmes that support the NDP. However, it is also expected that co-funded measures under the NDP will achieve their full entitlement to Structural Funds in the BMW Region by the end of 2008, the timetable set out in the Regulations. So the overall impact will not be available until that time.

The Government's commitment to the region does not cease when the current funding round draws to a close. The new National Development Plan 2007-13, currently in preparation, will build on the achievements already taking place under the Plan. In addition the BMW region will also receive Structural Funds allocation of €458m under the next round of funding 2007-13. In that context my Department is also preparing the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) which will set out the strategic orientation of the Funds and link the Community's priorities with the national and regional priorities, and which in turn will assist in the preparation of the relevant Operational Programmes.