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

I thank the Deputy for this important question. In budget 2024, a sum of €4.5 billion was allocated for non-core issues. These are costs that are driven by external developments or additional EU-funded projects that had to be reflected in our expenditure ceiling. The allocation covered pressures such as our humanitarian response to the arrivals fleeing war in Ukraine, legacy Covid issues and matters relating to, for example, the national recovery and resilience plan.

I have already explained to Deputy Nash some of the factors in relation to this matter and I will not take up the Deputy's time by repeating them. In regard to the question she put to me on whether we have made a decision on the departmental allocation of €4.5 billion, the answer is that we have not. I do not believe we will make that decision until we reach the Estimates process. We may give some indication of how we will manage it in the summer economic statement but at this point no such decisions have been made regarding the allocation of that €4.5 billion for next year.

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