Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am glad the Deputy noted that and asked the question because it is an issue I would like to see resolved. An allocation is made each year and, without being flippant, it is never the right allocation and therefore we always end up having to have a Supplementary Estimate to address the issue later in the year. A good piece of work is ongoing to try to resolve this. It is a spending review, not in the way that spending reviews are sometimes for downward levels of spending, but more of a review of how we should address this issue each year. We are engaging constructively with the Department of public expenditure on this, first around the appropriate sum each year, which I think is quite obvious, and second around where it should be located within the Government. I do not have a specific timeline as to when it is due for completion but I would like to see progress made on it this year.