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

I thank the Deputy for his questions. On the timings for Revised Estimates, Cabinet earlier this week agreed a set of Revised Estimates.

Earlier today, I was fixing a time with the finance committee as to when the finance Estimates would come before it. Many Estimates will be coming before the relevant committees over the next few weeks.

The Deputy asked about the Social Insurance Fund and the kinds of steps that need to be taken. He is correct that the largest contribution that can be made to the fund is to get people back to work. That is why dealing with our unemployment challenge is so important. One of the things I believe we need to assess, as recognised in the programme for Government, is the level of social insurance payments we have in the Irish economy. To be clear and precise, I am not saying they are going to change in this budget or even imminently. If we are going to make a change like that, it clearly must happen at a point when the economy is not dealing with the level of challenge that it is today. That said, we are going to need to fund policies in the future that have always been important but are probably going to be even more important as we become aware of our vulnerabilities regarding public health. We are going to have to look at the social insurance code. I am aiming, in conjunction with the Tánaiste, to put in place a process through which we can get views from the Oireachtas and different parts of our society and economy on that matter.

I am not aware that any other one-off transfer of the scale of that from NAMA will be coming in. It will be the case, as we move through the year, that some other one-off payments may accrue but they will be nowhere near the scale of the NAMA figure.