Written answers
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Department of Social and Family Affairs
Departmental Expenditure
2:30 pm
John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 315: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the amount of unspent money returned by his Department to the Department of Finance each year since 2007; the departmental budget for each year since 2007; the projects for which this money was originally earmarked in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21786/10]
Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Social Protection incurs voted expenditure under Vote 38 and non-voted expenditure from the social insurance fund. Only voted expenditure is subject to surrender to the Exchequer in the event of an under-spend. The following table shows the estimate and outturn for Vote 38 in 2007, 2008 and 2009:
| Vote 38 | Estimate | Outturn | Difference | % Difference |
| â'¬000 | â'¬000 | â'¬000 | % | |
| 2007 | 8,424,644 | 8,181,274 | -243,370 | -2.89% |
| 2008 | 9,631,887 | 9,328,040 | -303,847 | -3.15% |
| 2009* | 11,130,092 | 10,877,552 | -252,540 | -2.27% |
* Provisional pending completion of audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
Almost all expenditure of the Department of Social Protection is incurred on scheme payments to individual recipients such as pensioners and jobseekers based on pre-determined qualifying conditions and rates of payment, generally set out in legislation. The expenditure, which is demand-led, is driven by economic, social and demographic factors and the under-spends in the years in question are primarily due to these factors.
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