Mr. Robert Watt:

The Department of Justice and Equality is running more or less on profile for the first three months of the year. The different components of the Department of Justice and Equality have to stay within the allocation that is set out for them. They are running €8 million below the profile. They spent €578 million for the first three months and that is marginally below so, in effect, they are on profile. The variance is marginal. Their job is to stay within their allocation for this year and we will see how the year pans out in terms of how they do that.

On the €120 million, which was the Government's response to the implications of the Garda deal under the Lansdowne Road agreement and to provide space to discuss the future of pay determination, the Government decided to bring forward the payment from September 2017 to April 2017. That will increase the budget requirement and the Minister before this committee and previously said that is a matter that will be looked at during the course of the year, as the budget evolves. A figure of €120 million is an important number but, in the overall scheme of things, we will see how we can accommodate that, given the differences between the budget allocations and the actual emerging positions for Departments as the year progresses.