Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis na finnéithe as teacht os comhair an choiste. We all appreciate there is a lot in the budget but my questions will not be that specific so the witnesses will be more than able to answer them.

I want to mention one of the issues I had when trying to interpret the budget, and I am sure others had the same issue. I do not come from the same background as the witnesses so sometimes it can be difficult when reading the terminology that can be used because it is not always consistent. There were different categorisations in budget 2023, which created some problems. There is core, non-core, temporary, once-off, allocated and unallocated funding and spending. Some of them are established terms but some are not as established and sometimes they can be used interchangeably and, as we felt, inconsistently. I do not have a question on that; I just wanted to comment on it. I checked the public financial procedures document for guidance, but that handbook is some years out of date and some of the terms are not defined at all. We want as many people as possible to be able to read the budget if they so wish, although I am not sure how many people would sit down to do so, but it assumes a strong level of insider knowledge and you must be part of the furniture of the process to read it. It is important to note that and look at it so that others like me can read the budget more easily.

Most of my questions are for the officials from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform but I have a quick question for Mr. Cassidy on the GGB and the windfall corporation tax element. Will he explain what exactly are categorised as windfall tax receipts over ordinary corporation tax receipts? That would provide clarity to us.