Ms Rebecca Chapman:

I can take that question. The allocation to the Department has been set in the budgets for the last three years. Nearly €300 million has been allocated to the Department in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Separately from that, through Supplementary Estimates, the Department has had top-ups to that, most recently last week when we got an additional €86 million approved in a top-up for that allocation. The wider use of that fund and the use of any surpluses is a matter for our colleagues in the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform.

In terms of how much has been spent to date, as the Deputy will appreciate from the supplementary allocation last week, we are spending actively at the moment and will be spending very actively until the end of this year with a view to maximising the outturn. We will not know the final outturn until early January. We propose to use everything we have been allocated this year and obviously the supplementary allocation as well, so that will bring the allocation for this year to over €300 million alone. That is our plan for this year.