Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 22 May 2013

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance

Estimates for Public Services 2013
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised)

5:30 pm

Photo of Michael NoonanMichael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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It is the single euro payments area. It is one of the projects. There was another figure of €1.36 million, €1.190 million of which was for credit surveys on small and medium sized enterprises, which we reported on previously. A sum of €0.120 million was for work on mortgage arrears and €0.050 million was for the Credit Review Office. Index No. 207601 was in respect of outside legal services. A further amount with index No. 207722 was for €350,000 on the economic planning project, another with index No. 207608 is €3.8 million for legal costs. The total is €6.875 million and that is the breakdown.

I can give Deputy Boyd Barrett more information if he wishes. SEPA is the singe euro payments area and the project is being implemented by Departments. It is a contractual commitment to the Commission under the terms of the Bank of Ireland's recapitalisation programme. This is a constituent part of the national payments plan which is the responsibility of the Department of Finance in the first instance. We, therefore, need to budget as if we were rolling it out fully. We will, of course, endeavour to get a good deal of help from the stakeholders on all aspects of the plan, including the budget. That is as much as I have.