Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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142. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide a breakdown of the €55,782,000 of miscellaneous expenditure as outlined in Note 5 Non-Voted Current Expenditure in the November Exchequer statement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52885/13]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Of the €55.782 million of non-voted current expenditure presented as miscellaneous expenditure in the end November 2013 Exchequer statement, €55.765 million occurred during the month of November. This can be broken down into 2 different categories. The first category of €52.658 million represents a balance in respect of the Department of Social Protection (DSP) with the Central Fund on 30 November 2013. This funding was advanced to provide adequate cash flow to prefund monthly Departmental scheme expenditure.

Under Government accounting rules such advances may not be regarded as voted current expenditure until their disbursement. They may arise due to timing differences where there is prefunding at month end and matching expenditure at the start of the subsequent month. Such unspent advances issued from the Central Fund are recorded as cash equivalent assets of the Department at month end.

It should be noted that similar balances have occurred in respect the DSP in previous years for the same reason of ensuring adequate cash flow to prefund and meet scheme expenditure as it arises.

The second category consisting of payments of €0.311 million and €2.796 million are in respect of Ireland's contributions in 2013 to the General Capital Increase (GCI) and the Selective Capital Increase (SCI) of the World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)).

In common with other international financial institutions and in the context of governance reforms to strengthen the representation of developing countries, the World Bank adopted Resolutions in 2010 providing for an increase in its authorised capital in order to ensure a sufficiency of resources to respond to increased lending requirements in the light of the financial crisis. Ireland's participation in the capital increase is in line with its existing pro-rata share of IBRD capital. Under the World Bank's Procedures for Subscriptions to the GCI and SCI, the paid-in element comprises 6% of the value of the additional shareholding, of which 10% (i.e. 0.06%) is paid in US dollars and the remainder in euro. The amounts of €0.311 million and €2.796 million correspond to the breakdown on this basis of the 2013 instalment. In line with the subscription arrangements, Ireland's contributions are being paid in approximately equal annual instalments in each of the years 2013 to 2016 inclusive in the case of the GCI, and 2013 to 2015 inclusive in the case of the SCI.