Committee Reports > List of Committees > Dáil > 1952 > Committee of Public Accounts > Report - Appropriation Accounts 1949 - 1950

APPENDIX XI.

EXPENDITURE ON BOOKS AND MAPS.

Rúnaí,

Coiste um Chuntais Phoiblí.

I wish to submit the following points in clarification of my reply to the Chairman regarding the expenditure under Subhead L, Books and Maps. The expenditure under this Subhead consists mainly of payments to Publishers in respect of published books and periodicals of a technical and scientific nature ordered for various Departments, and Ordnance Survey Maps purchased from the Ordnance Survey Office for re-sale to the Public.

Owing to the extreme urgency of the Supplementary Estimate an exhaustive examination of the unfulfilled orders with various publishers was not practicable. From a cursory review of the position at the time it appeared that the Subhead provision of £7,000 for Books and Maps might be exceeded by about £500. As is customary in such cases this comparatively small excess was offset against savings on other Subheads of the Vote, consequently specific provision for the additional sum required was not made in the Supplementary Estimate. In the final result the value of accounts for published books which came in course of payment before the close of the financial year proved much in excess of previous calculations.

It should also be mentioned that the printing costs of Stationery Office Publications, Oireachtas Papers (including Debates), etc., are charged in their respective categories to Subheads F.1 (Oireachtas Printing), F. 2 (Oireachtas Debates), and H. (Printing), and not, as the evidence might be interpreted to imply, to Subhead L Books and Maps. The excess expenditure under Subhead L, Books and Maps, is not therefore related to the increased receipts under Item 2 of Appropriations in Aid.