asked the Minister for Finance the basis on which a figure of £50 million is calculated as a saving in departmental balances in the Budget.

The basis on which the departmental balances figure of £50 million was calculated in the 1985 budget was the standard basis used each year. The departmental balances figure in question is based on the difference between the amount issued by the Exchequer to departmental accounts in 1984 and the amount reported by Departments in their end-year expenditure returns, received in my Department in mid-January 1985, as having been spent in 1984.

Does that not suggest that, if the Minister's projection for departmental balances in 1985 was the extraordinary figure of £50 million, the calculations in 1984, on which he based the 1985 figure, were entirely unreliable, that any calculations that could have a cleavage of that order are unreliable and therefore that the work has not been properly done by him or by his colleagues?

That is simply not the case. The balances represented the differences between amounts issued to the Departments in 1984 and the amounts that they actually spent. The outturn figures for 1984, published in the pre-budget document and since, represented a clear and accurate picture of the amounts expended. It might be interesting if I were to point out that the budget day deduction for departmental balances in 1980, which I think was presented by Deputy O'Kennedy, had a figure for departmental balances of £40 million. At that time it represented 1½ per cent of net current supply services. The saving of £50 million which I had in my budget this year represents 0.9 per cent of net current supply services. I suggest that, rather than becoming less reliable as the Deputy suggested, the clear evidence is that they are becoming more reliable.

In the year to which the Minister referred is the Minister not aware that the balances turned out to be accurate, as estimated? Does he not realise that he was the one who last year presented the figures for 1984 and that the £50 million balances call into question his projections for 1985?

In 1980 the budget day deduction for departmental balances was £40 million. The actual balances which emerged when the appropriation accounts were published amounted to £31.1 million, a difference of about £9 million. In 1984 the budget day deductions amounted to £25 million, one half per cent of net current supply services. The actual balance which emerged when the appropriation accounts were published was £18 million. The percentage difference in 1984 seems to be much smaller than in 1980.