Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The 2014 allocation was €6.544 million and was provided to cover a wide range of deliverables including banking sector policy, personal debt, small and medium enterprise lending, financial services reform and the cost of implementing the national payments plan project, all of which were being led by the Department. The allocation sought for 2015 is €5.62 million, a reduction of approximately €1 million. This reflects a reduction on national payments plan projects as some of them will reach a natural conclusion, the consolidation of the transformational budget under subhead E3, and reduced costs as more of the work of the SME personal debt area is completed in-house.

With regard to fiscal policy and subhead C4, concerning consultancy and other services, there is an estimate for 2015 of €850,000. The Minister said the increase was for the purpose of a new joint ESRI-Department of Finance research programme on tax policy and the macro-economy and to provide for the cost of legal defences. Could he tell us a little more about the joint research paper and why there is a need for an increase in the cost of legal defences?