Committee Reports > List of Committees > Dáil > 1960 > Committee of Public Accounts > Interim and Final Report - Appropriation Accounts 1959 - 1960

APPENDIX VIII.

VOTE FOR RATES ON GOVERNMENT PROPERTY: APPROPRIATIONS IN AID.

Chairman,

Public Accounts Committee.

On perusal of the typescript copy, sent me by your Clerk, of the minutes of evidence of your Committee for 10th November, when I appeared before you as Accounting Officer for Vote 25 (Rates on Government Property) 1959-60, I realise that both the question and the answer in the final paragraph relating to the Appropriation Account for that Vote give a wrong impression.

An Appropriation in Aid of £516 was realised by receipt from the British authorities of a repayment in respect of rates on Leopardstown Hospital, paid by this Office in the previous year. No provision had been made for an Appropriation in Aid from this source when the Estimate for the Vote was being prepared. I cannot say with certainty the reason for this omission, which occurred before I was appointed Accounting Officer, but it would appear very likely that, due to the fact that Estimates provision for payment by us of rates in respect of the Hospital ceased in 1959-60, the fact was overlooked that the final receipt from the British (in respect of what we had paid in 1958-59) was still to be brought in.

The £560 referred to in your question is not relevant to 1959-60, but is the Appropriation in Aid provided for in the 1958-59 Estimate. This was a firm figure, being the amount actually paid by us in 1957-58, as was the £516 the amount actually paid by us in 1958-59. There was no question of any dispute about the amount, and I am afraid that my references to our anticipating a probable rise in the rates and to the occurrence of a saving are meaningless in the context.

Commissioner of Valuation.

24 Samhain, 1960.