Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 77: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills the extent of any over or under expenditure, capital or current, by Vote, heading or subheading to date in 2010 in tabular form; the reason for any surplus or shortfall; if expenditure to date in each case is in line with budgetary projections; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44655/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Based on the expenditure information for the period to end October 2010, it is estimated that current expenditure for my Department for the year will be in accordance with the Voted Allocation. It is possible as the end of the year approaches that excesses of expenditure on a small number of subheads will require be offset by savings on other subheads. There is currently in this regard a projected excess of €43 million on expenditure on Student Supports (Subhead E1), due in large part to a signficant increase in numbers of grant-holders and of numbers in receipt of higher rates of grant. This projected excess will be offset by lower expenditure on Residential Institutions Redress (Subhead B12 - €10 million), anticipated savings linked to the timescale for payments being made by the Commission on Child Abuse (Subhead B19 - €12 million) and by various savings on staff costs and on FAS Programmes (€21 million).

In relation to Capital expenditure, there are indications of a potential under-spend of €62 million on the Primary subhead F1. Prominent factors in the potential under-spend include the continuing reduction in the value of tenders (40% lower than in the height of the construction boom) and financial difficulties within the sector which have delayed project delivery. It is proposed to reallocate this projected under-spend by increasing by €20 million the allocation for Schools Information and Communication TechnologIes (Subhead B18) and by transferring €42 million to the higher education capital programme (Subhead F3).

In order to facilitate the above current and capital transfers I will be seeking a technical Supplementary Estimate for my Department.