Deirdre Clune (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 39: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the balance of the social insurance fund for each of the past ten years; the projected balance for the next three years; the expected deficit for 2010; the details on the way this deficit will be met; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27898/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The Social Insurance Fund (SIF) operates under the terms of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005. The Fund comprises a current account and an investment account. The Minister for Social Protection manages and controls the current account from which benefit payments are made, while the Minister for Finance, through the National Treasury Management Agency manages the investment account. To the extent that annual income is not required for benefit payments, this finance, together with any accumulated surplus from previous years is transferred to the SIF investment account.

Between 1999 and 2007, the fund had a surplus each year, ranging from €256 million in 2003 to €649 million in 2006. The accumulated surplus rose from €420 million in 1999 to €3,632 million in 2007. Deficits were recorded in 2008 and 2009, reducing the accumulated surplus to €892 million at the end of 2009.

The Fund's accumulated surplus is now exhausted. The operational deficit of the Fund for 2010 after the utilisation of the accumulated surplus of €892 million is estimated to be €1.55 billion, this will be borne by the Exchequer by means of a subvention from the Oireachtas – Vote 38.

It is forecast that the Social Insurance Fund expenditure will exceed its income in each of the years 2011 to 2013, with the deficit continuing to be borne by means of a subvention from the Exchequer. The Social Insurance Fund will continue to hold a capital asset over this period represented in the form of Department's headquarters property in Store Street, Dublin.

The table shows details of the receipts payments and the balance of the Social Insurance Fund for each of the past ten years.

Balance in Social Insurance Fund 1999 - 2009

*€635 million was paid from the Fund to the Exchequer in accordance with section 7 of the Social welfare (No 2) Act 2001.

** The SIF Account for 2009 is currently in draft format. The account will be subject to audit by the C&AG and the 2009 figures are therefore provisional.