Mr. Dermot Nolan:

There is Department guidance on this issue. The Department may decide to refuse a virement if, in its view, the additional expenditure would be on a new service of which the Dáil should be made aware, it is novel or contentious, it is large in relation to the original provision, it is likely to involve significant liabilities in future years, or it arises from a major change in policy. Again, the judgment at the time, and there was lots of other stuff going on around Covid, was that this particular transfer did not actually meet any of those criteria.