Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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212. To ask the Minister for Finance the reason Ireland's 2013 EU budget contribution exceeded the budget day forecast by €300 million; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2580/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The final outturn for Ireland's contribution to the EU budget in 2013 totalled €1,726 million, some €271 million higher than was originally forecast for Budget 2013. Two externally driven developments, which were not known at the time of publication of Budget 2013, contributed to this bigger-than-expected contribution. Specifically, these were the upward revisions to Ireland's Gross National Income (GNI) and a number of EU amending budgets, which necessitated additional payments.

A number of factors are taken into account in calculating Ireland's overall EU budget contribution. The GNI element accounts for approximately two thirds of Ireland's overall payment. Accordingly, our contribution is sensitive to movements in this measure. The European Commission conducts an annual rebalancing exercise on the basis of revisions to national GNI levels. This can involve rebalancing payments each December, either to or from the EU budget, depending upon national GNI movements. This exercise takes into account new and updated GNI data published by the CSO in the annual National Income and Expenditure Bulletin. Last year this led to an increase in Ireland's contribution.  

Separately, EU expenditure for 2013 was much higher than had been originally budgeted for and this required a number of amending budgets which were agreed during the year. These included a draft amending budget for an unprecedented additional €11.2 billion, two thirds of which was paid last year, with the balance to be paid this year. As, by their nature, these amending budgets are generally prepared in response to unforeseen events, they cannot be anticipated in advance.