Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 25 November 2025
Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade
Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (Supplementary)
2:00 am
Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
There are a couple of aspects to this. How the amount is calculated is not straightforward because of currency fluctuations and different budgetary cycles. Most European countries would have their budget at this time of year. Our friends in the UK are having their budget this week. However, the UN is made up of many member states outside of Europe and their budgetary cycles can be very different from ours. That leads to a UN system that uses a complicated method. It is a tri-annual cycle and that can have an impact depending on when it hits in the system. We originally budgeted for what we paid in previous years but this hits in a cycle where it is a good bit more. This will ease out. As I said, it is not a uniform approach for any country. That is part of the difficulty when it comes to calculating contributions into the UN. Unfortunately, it has been like this for the past number of years. That will be on the UN side of things, as opposed to our side.
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