Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The announcement this year was earlier than the announcement in 2015 and only a few days off from the announcement made in 2016. A regular feature of this process is that it has to go through a whole of Government process of approval. Approximately €30 million is being committed to in the coming year and so not surprisingly agreement on that has to be processed through Government.

We have done the work to be in a position to discontinue the practice that has applied for the past six years, which has been unsatisfactory as the Deputy rightly pointed out. Work is under way for the forthcoming year and for the Estimates process to deal with it in a more satisfactory way.

See this speech in context