Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will address the second point first. Even though it does not feel like it, we are at a very early stage in all of the discussions on the MFF. It is likely that this work will accelerate towards the end of this year. It will have to. There are scenarios in which our contribution to the MFF will go up. In a speech to the European Parliament a number of months ago, the Taoiseach said that he believed that Ireland should pay more and make more of a contribution to the MFF, which I wholeheartedly agree with. If we have benefitted from the European budget in the past, and given the kind of support we have received from European institutions in the past year, I believe that we should make a contribution. We are thinking through the budgetary consequences of all of that. If I was to start talking about figures now, it would not reflect the fact that we are in a negotiation. Before I get to the point of explaining to the House the additional contributions that we might need to make, it is probably better that we gain a firmer view regarding what the Commission will look for and why. When we have done that, I would be happy to come back and update the committee on that and its budgetary consequences.