Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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245. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if a use it or lose it by year end rule is or has been in operation within his Department when devolving funding to agencies under his remit on an annual basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29192/16]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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My Department complies with the provisions of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform Circular 13/2014 - Management of and Accountability for Grants from Exchequer Funds. This circular sets out the public financial rules to be followed in the management of grant funding and in general, requires that any unspent funding at year end is surrendered to the Exchequer. An exception to this general rule is where agencies are pre-funded towards their day to day running costs.  In these instances year reasonable end balances may be retained where it is deemed necessary to meet outstanding financial commitments.  My Department has monitoring and control systems in place to ensure that these retained balances are keep to a minimum.