Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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243. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the scheduled reductions in his Department, or in agencies under his aegis, spending in 2015 and the areas of spending these reductions scheduled to take place to show the amount of reductions by theme. [38023/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The 2015 Estimate for my Department will be considered within the context of the annual gross expenditure ceilings that were provisionally allocated to all Departments at the time of budget 2014 and the comprehensive review of expenditure 2015 - 2017. The Government decision in relation to the expenditure ceilings was taken in order to strike a balance between needs and priorities on a multi-annual basis, to meet the requirements of the overall fiscal commitments which are firmly focused on reducing the General Government Deficit by end 2015 and ensuring that the public finances return to a sustainable path.

The discussions on the 2015 Estimate are under way in the Department and all budget lines in the Vote, both capital and current are being examined as part of that process having regard to the funding constraints for next year. My intention is to ensure that all resources available to my Department will be managed to provide the optimum benefit to economic activity in the agricultural, food, fisheries and forestry sectors, including farm incomes, and to realising the potential which clearly exists for the sectors to continue to contribute to the national economic recovery.

It is understood that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is planning to publish the detailed 2015 Revised Estimates Volume later in the year. As in previous years, it is the practice of the of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to expand further on the information contained in the Revised Estimates Volume by publishing a more detailed tabular statement of budget figures on its website to coincide with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform’s publication.