Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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89. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to provide detail on the non-core spending allocation of approximately €4.5 billion for each year from 2025 to 2027 outlined in the stability programme update; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19840/24]

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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Will the Minister provide detail on the non-core spending allocation of approximately €4.5 billion for each year from 2025 to 2027 that is outlined in the stability programme update? Will he make particular reference to the use of the contingency reserve?

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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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.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I appreciate that response. I am trying to get greater detail and confirmation of whether the contingency reserve is now within core rather than non-core expenditure. Is the contingency reserve intended to be a long-term feature in our budgets?

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The stability programme update did not make reference to non-core expenditure. In one recent stability programme update we did make reference to non-core expenditure and in another we did not. The Government has not made a decision yet on whether there will be a concept of non-core spending used in budget 2025. I acknowledge the benefits of non-core expenditure, which I emphasised earlier, but non-core expenditure referred to issues that we genuinely believed to be temporary. We have to seriously consider whether some of the challenges we are confronting will genuinely be temporary. I have not yet engaged with the Cabinet on that. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael McGrath, and I have to work that out.

In relation to the number of years for which we have made provision for contingency reserve, we have done it for 2025, 2026 and 2027.

Certainly, for 2025, as we move closer to the budget, we will have form a view as to whether it is adequate for next year. The figure came from an expectation regarding how much was spent this year on issues that we would now see as being non-core.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I look forward to seeing greater detail in the Estimates so that we can do further scrutiny of where things are at and what the plans are for the future.