AS much as £130 million could still be sitting in the pot by the end of the 2007/08 financial year in terms of resource underspend by government departments in Northern Ireland.
The figure came to light after Newry and Armagh DUP Assemblyman William Irwin asked the Minister of Finance and Personnel to estimate the level of underspend via an Assembly question.
He was told by Peter Robinson that whilst actual provisional ou
tturn figures for 2007/08 are currently being compiled by departments, most recent forecasts suggest that the level of resource underspend "will be in the region of £130 million or 1.5 per cent of allocations".
Mr Robinson said that he expected the actual provisional outturn figures from departments to be available by June.
Government departments are allocated a certain amount of money each year by the Budget process to carry out their business.
A spokesman for the Department of Finance said that all departments could expect to be left with a certain amount of money not spent.
But the spokesman stressed that this surplus money remained available for "future use" – it is not surrendered to the Treasury.
Commenting on the £130 million figure, Mr Irwin said that although it sounded like a lot of money, a truer picture of the situation could only really be gained if it was broken down across individual departments.
But he said it was "interesting" to see the figure, "given that we are led to believe that some departments need more money".
He added: "There are many departments in dire straits and they will be very glad to get that (underspent] money reallocated back to them."
A Department of Finance spokesman said: "It is the responsibility of individual departments to allocate the available funding between services in the light of competing priorities – this will inevitably involve some difficult choices but that is the responsibility of government."
The figure came to light after Newry and Armagh DUP Assemblyman William Irwin asked the Minister of Finance and Personnel to estimate the level of underspend via an Assembly question.
He was told by Peter Robinson that whilst actual provisional outturn figures for 2007/08 are currently being compiled by departments, most recent forecasts suggest that the level of resource underspend "will be in the region of £130 million or 1.5 per cent of allocations".
Mr Robinson said that he expected the actual provisional outturn figures from departments to be available by June.
Government departments are allocated a certain amount of money each year by the Budget process to carry out their business.
A spokesman for the Department of Finance said that all departments could expect to be left with a certain amount of money not spent.
But the spokesman stressed that this surplus money remained available for "future use" – it is not surrendered to the Treasury.
Commenting on the £130 million figure, Mr Irwin said that although it sounded like a lot of money, a truer picture of the situation could only really be gained if it was broken down across individual departments.
But he said it was "interesting" to see the figure, "given that we are led to believe that some departments need more money".
He added: "There are many departments in dire straits and they will be very glad to get that (underspent] money reallocated back to them."
A Department of Finance spokesman said: "It is the responsibility of individual departments to allocate the available funding between services in the light of competing priorities – this will inevitably involve some difficult choices but that is the responsibility of government."
The full article contains 601 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
