John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Before I open up the floor to members I would like to make one or two points. I want to acknowledge the changes previously made by the Minister's officials in regard to the insertion of an a third column to take account of the Christmas bonus because this makes the figures much easier to use. The Minister mentioned that the Christmas bonus is not included in the original Estimates of the Department, which, perhaps, is a policy decision. It is a pity it is not included because the beneficiaries of it are the people who are the most vulnerable and probably need to make sure they can plan for Christmas such that they do not have to engage the services of moneylenders and so forth. It is not only the amount paid, but the certainty around it, that is important to people. However, that is a political and policy position.

On the Social Insurance Fund, the Minister mentioned that the surplus is €3.9 billion. Does the Minister have a view on where that surplus should be spent over the next year or two? I also have a technical question on the Social Insurance Fund in regard to subhead A.38, which is the household benefits package. The sum of €20 million of expenditure has been moved from the Vote to the Social Insurance Fund. The rationale for this is a detailed analysis of claims. However, there is no breakdown of the how the calculation was done. There is a substantial change in percentages. The spend decreased from €89 million to €69 million by way of the transfer of €20 million of that spend to the Social Insurance Fund. I accept the Minister may not have this information to hand today but perhaps she would undertake to forward to the committee a detailed note on the rationale for that process and how the calculation was done.