Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach agus baill an choiste. Tá mé iontach sásta leis an gcuireadh theacht os comhair an choiste, ionas go mbeidh díospóireacht againn ar an ábhar seo. Má tá aon cheisteanna ag aon duine ina dhiaidh seo, beidh mé sásta iad a fhreagairt. Gabhaim buíochas le baill an choiste go léir as ucht an deis a thabhairt dom a bheith anseo leo. Tá oifigigh ó mo Roinn liom ar mo chlé agus ar mo dheis.

I thank the committee for the opportunity to speak here this morning and for its consideration of my Department's Supplementary Estimate. Following approval by the Government, my Department is seeking a net Supplementary Estimate of €68 million. This is the lowest supplementary requirement from my Department in recent years. It represents a variation on the Department's overall net allocation for 2019 of less than 0.7%. My Department has provided detailed briefing on this Supplementary Estimate, but I will briefly outline the key elements for the information of the committee.

There is an additional pay requirement of €52.3 million in the school sector across several subheads. For context, the pay allocation for the schools sector is more than €5.3 billion in 2019, so this represents a variation of around 1%. The main drivers of the additional demand are in the areas of substitution, additional costs for teacher supply initiatives, demographics and some technical issues in the education and training board, ETB, sector.

An additional €19.9 million is required for school transport in 2019. Around 90% of the additional cost relates to the provision of transport for children with special educational needs, which has been the main cost driver in the scheme over recent years. The remaining 10% relates to general costs in areas such as increasing fuel costs and demographic increases.

An additional €9.9 million is being sought for the State Examinations Commission, SEC. As members of the committee know well, the SEC is responsible for the development, assessment, accreditation and certification of the State's second level examinations. The SEC was required to incur a range of additional costs in 2019, in large part due to the need to implement changes to the marking process to facilitate earlier leaving certificate appeals timelines as a result of a High Court judgement. I take this opportunity to acknowledge the work of all staff members within the SEC, who have been very proactive and responsive to these changes.

Some €7 million is sought to cover additional expenditure on the rental of temporary accommodation due to a higher level of approvals required to meet immediate school accommodation needs, along with a €1 million contingency for some uncertainties around the level of rental approvals before the end of the year.

Some €0.4 million is sought to cover the knock-on costs in the education and training sector arising from the Government's decision to award a Christmas bonus payment to recipients of social protection payments. A number of participants on SOLAS-funded further education and training programmes are in receipt of a training allowance in lieu of their Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection benefits. The Government has made a decision that these participants will also receive a Christmas bonus.

The final issue on the expenditure side is €9 million to provide for the knock-on costs in the higher education sector of a pay deal which was agreed in the health sector for medical consultants. This will cover the cost of pay arrears which are due to be paid to academic medical consultants.

An estimated surplus of €31.5 million in appropriations-in-aid is being factored into the 2019 Supplementary Estimate to offset these expenditure pressures. The Department has received additional receipts of €39.1 million in European Social Fund moneys over the amounts profiled for 2019. These are reduced slightly by a €7.6 million shortfall in superannuation receipts as a result of technical issues regarding the treatment of these receipts.

I am happy to discuss these issues in more detail and I commend the Supplementary Estimate to the committee.