The Minister for Finance Mr McCreevy is due to appear before the Dail Committee on Finance and General Affairs today, following a request from Fine Gael finance spokesman, Mr Michael Noonan.

The Minister is due to answer questions about the level of the Budget surplus for this year and how much debt has been paid off. Mr Noonan has also officially requested that the National Treasury Management Agency chief executive, Dr Michael Somers, attend the meeting.

Dr Somers met with the Minister for Finance yesterday, although the Minister would only say that the meeting was one of the regular meetings between them. Dr Somers was unavailable for comment.

The meeting which followed Dr Somers's strong criticism of the Department of Finance last week was said to be about other matters.

Mr Noonan said he had requested the appearance of both to clear up the apparent differences on figures for this year's surplus. He said he will be asking the Minister to explain the difference between Dr Somers's interpretation of the figures for the Exchequer finances and the Department of Finance's. "I will ask him to explain the discrepancy between both on the level of the surplus for 1998," Mr Noonan said.

He added that he has also tabled a priority question, for the Minister for Finance's question and answer session in the Dail tomorrow.

In an interview in The Irish Times last Friday, Dr Somers questioned the Department's figures for the surplus. At the end of November the surplus stood at around £1.9 billion and had not changed by much last week. However, he did not say that the surplus at the end of the year would remain close to this figure as substantial amounts are usually spent in the last month of the year.

It is understood that the Department is due to spend 16 per cent of the entire year's Budget in December or £2.2 billion. However, it is not clear how much tax revenue is expected during the month - a figure needed to determine the level of the surplus at the end of the year. u750 million surplus. Following Dr Somers' comments last week, the Department found another u75 million in tax revenue which it said had come in the night before the Budget. The figures to last Tuesday would imply the Government would need to spend well over a billion in three weeks more than it takes in tax revenue. Last year £1.668 billion was spent in December while £1.28 billion was spent in 1996. Spending is usually at its highest at this time of year, while some types of tax revenue slow down.

Nevertheless, many analyst have said that the Department's figures look a little too cautious. One possibility is that the Department will use some of the extra money to pay off the small savings reserve fund to bring back the level of the surplus.

The Budget two weeks ago forecast a surplus for 1999 of £925 million, and even that is likely to be too little if this year's figures come in ahead of target.

In the Dail yesterday, the Labour party refused to accept supplementary estimates because of the discrepancy between the Department of Finance's figures and those cited by Dr Somers last week. However, in a subsequent vote on the issue the Opposition parties were defeated by 74 to 57 votes.