Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is correct that supplementary budgets have been required for different reasons in each of the years. In terms of this year, I have already commenced engagement with a number of Departments on their expected spend later this year. In terms of where we are now versus profile, while the vast majority of Departments are now either at or below profile, for me what is key is where we end up in the second half of the year. The Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, and I have already engaged on this matter a number of times this year and following Easter I will be meeting other Government colleagues in regard to this issue.

It is sometimes unavoidable that during a year particular matters require supplementary budgets. I refer, for example, to the supplementary funding for the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport to deal with the effects of flooding and natural disasters and the Department of Justice and Equality to meet the cost of Garda overtime and organised crime. I acknowledge that there are certain forms of supplementary budgets that for the coming year and years we need to reduce the frequency and value of. I have put in place new measures for this year to try to address that issue.

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