Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am not using Covid-19 as an excuse. I am just pointing out the reality, as the report also does. I am not evading or avoiding that the Comptroller and Auditor General said we should be looking to audit an account and track it in a different way. I do not rule that out. I accept the point being made. We may need to look in the future at whether we want to hypothecate in a way that is much more specific and traceable and different from the rest of Government expenditure, where if there was an underspend, it would not be returned in the way it is in a standard ordered way. That is how the money was returned. One can disagree with that approach and say we should perhaps have a different accounting system for carbon tax. I accept that. It is a matter for future programme for Government negotiations. We cannot retrospectively change it.

There are two key points. First, Covid-19 was the main reason for the underspend. Second, you can be critical, as the report is, of the accounting and reporting systems, but they are not outside the norm. It was within the context recommended by the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform spending rules.

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