Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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247. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the areas from which the proceeds for the planned refund by the end of the year of domestic water charges will come from; the specific Department which he envisages will have underspends by the year end; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36637/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Managing the delivery of public services within Budgetary allocations set out in the Estimates agreed by the Dáil is a key responsibility of each Minister and their Department. The drawdown of funds from the Exchequer is monitored against the published expenditure profiles and this information is published monthly, as part of the Department of Finance's Fiscal Monitor.

As outlined in the Mid-Year Expenditure Report, and as set out in the June Fiscal Monitor, overall voted expenditure of €27.4 billion is €0.3 billion, or 1.2 per cent, below profile at the end of June. Underspends against expenditure profiles can arise for a number of reasons. These reasons can be timing related, can arise from re-estimations of demand for particular programmes or from cost savings in the delivery of programmes.

Given the many moving parts within the overall gross voted expenditure amount of €58 billion, the amount of the projected year-end underspends can only be assessed with certainty at a later stage in the year. This is illustrated by the expenditure outturn for 2016. As outlined in the Mid-Year Expenditure Report 2017, gross voted current expenditure in 2016 ended the year €0.1 billion below the current expenditure allocation based on the Revised Estimates for 2016 agreed by Dáil Éireann. This outturn of €51.8 billion was €0.2 billion below the current expenditure amount for 2016 set out in Expenditure Report 2017 published last October, due to underspends across a range of Departments that emerged towards the end of the year.

Turning to the specific issue of refunds of water charges, which will be in effect a one-off charge in the year of payment, it is anticipated that the cost arising this year in relation to the refund of water charges will be met within available Exchequer resources taking into account the revenue, expenditure and overall fiscal policy position later in the year.