Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is an initial allocation of what is going to be a much larger budget that will be required for the EU Presidency. I brought a memo to Cabinet last week outlining our plans for our European Presidency. The budget will be many multiples of that. We will be hosting an anticipated programme of approximately 250 events and meetings to take place in Ireland, including 22 informal meetings. That initial €10 million allocation allows us to begin the bulking-up of our staff numbers for the Presidency. Some €7 million of that will be spent on pay, while approximately €3 million will be spent on increasing our office footprint to accommodate those additional staff. The Deputy is right; it is a round number. We had to start somewhere. It will be followed by a much larger allocation for the coming year.