Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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202. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the amount of allocation unspent by the Defence Forces and his Department and returned in 2018 and 2019 and to date in 2020; the subheads underspends arose from; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29810/20]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Defence Vote is treated as a Group (comprising of Vote 35 Army Pensions and Vote 36 Defence) Gross Budget Allocation and amounts unspent for the years 2018-2020 are as follows:

The total amount remaining unspent at end-2018 was €2.7 million and at end-2019 was €0.1 million. The amount unspent from the 2020 allocations will not be known until year-end, but the position is being carefully monitored on an ongoing basis by my Department.

On an annual basis, savings arising across the Votes, including from Pay and Allowances, and within the Vote subheads, with the approval of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and in accordance with Government Accounting Procedures, have been used to address spending pressures elsewhere in the Vote Group and Vote subheads. This has uniquely enabled the Department to utilise savings on current expenditure to fund capital investment to ensure that the Defence Forces have modern and fit for purpose capital assets including naval vessels, aircraft and land forces force protection platforms. As a result, the actual overall amount remaining unspent in the years 2018 and 2019 was €2.8 million, representing 0.14% of the allocation for that period.