David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to take the Minister back to the Supplementary Estimates and to the total figure of €1.39 billion. Our job today is to ensure there is, at the very least, a basic and elementary level of scrutiny, oversight and accountability. For that to happen, we have to be satisfied as to the figures in two respects: what was originally allocated versus what will be allocated now and the difference between the two. That is essentially why we are here.

Regarding the Covid-19 expenditure, it took us a bit of time to get there because we were perhaps late in getting the breakdown and we had to work out some of the figures with the Minister’s officials to get to those, but we now know that the total Covid-19 expenditure was €1.878 billion. We also know the original Covid-19 expenditure, as in budget 2022, was €679 million. These figures are from page 19 of the Minister’s own document.