Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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321. To ask the Minister for Finance the way the reported recalculation of EU member states' contributions will affect Ireland's contribution; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41640/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Ireland's contribution to the EU Budget is an obligation of EU membership and is a charge on the Central Fund under national legislation. The contribution formula for the EU Budget is comprised of Traditional Own Resources (customs duties), a VAT-based payment and a residual balancing component paid in accordance with each Member State's (MS) share of EU Gross National Income (GNI).

Annually, a technical rebalancing exercise is carried out whereby updated MS GNI and VAT data is used to retrospectively adjust preceding years' budget contributions. These balancing payments are called up for automatic payment, in accordance with the relevant legislation, on 1^stDecember every year.

In parallel with this, the Commission has proposed Draft Amending Budget 6 (DAB 6) which includes a technical redistribution of these balancing payments across MS. The net impact of these two exercises is an estimated additional contribution of €6.5m for Ireland. It should be noted that, whereas the payment under the technical balancing exercise is automatic, DAB 6 must be agreed by both Council (QMV) and Parliament.

Separately, DAB 6 also updates the forecast for MS customs duties in 2014 to reflect current revenue developments. For Ireland, this involves a separate increase of €6m in our customs duties payment.