Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My thanks to the Deputy for the question. That was certainly not the intention of me, as Minister, in appearing before the committee, which, of course, I am happy to do at any point. As both the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, and I acknowledged in our opening statements, this was a year like no other in the context of budget 2021. We have acknowledged that, due to the circumstances of the year, it was not possible to publish a mid-year expenditure report. That was and has been in recent years an important part of the overall process for the committee in preparing for the budget that will be unveiled the following October.

Also, we did not have the summer economic statement, as has been acknowledged. The truth is that in preparing budget 2021 we were dealing with an extraordinary amount of volatility. Final decisions on the budget were made following careful consideration over a period at a late stage. As we know, we constructed the budget against certain key assumptions in terms of Brexit, the pandemic and the issue of a vaccination programme. We decided on the need for a recovery fund of €3.4 billion and a Covid-19 contingency fund of €2 billion.

All of these issues were very much in play and remained under active consideration until the eve of the budget. That is the truth because it was a year like no other. We had many moving parts. The value of the decisions we made are now bearing fruit, even with the decisions we made today in respect of a new business aid scheme, additional funding for the sustaining enterprises fund and so on.