Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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123. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 225 of 19 July 2016, if there has been any change in the method of calculating Ireland's contribution to the EU budget; if there has been any change to his estimate in that reply of the impact the CSO revision of the National Income and Expenditure Accounts for 2015 will have on Ireland's EU budget contribution for 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27730/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Member State contributions to the EU Budget are based upon a formula which includes Traditional Own Resources (customs duties), a VAT-based payment and a residual balancing component paid in accordance with each Member State's share of EU Gross National Income (GNI).

While the methodology has evolved over time in order to make it as responsive as possible to both the changes associated with the above factors, and changes within the EU Budget itself, there have been no recent changes. Forecasts are constantly updated and refined as such information becomes available from the European Commission, the CSO, and other agencies.

At this time we have not changed our estimate of the impact of the CSO revision from that provided at the time of the earlier PQ. As indicated in that PQ, the estimate was premised on the full ratification of the Own Resources Decision (ORD) by all Member States this year this has now taken place. We will re-examine the forecast in the coming weeks to include updated economic data associated with Budget 2017.

It must be emphasised that the final impact depends on a number of variables including the size of the overall EU budget for 2017 (which is not due to be agreed until November 2016), GNI movements in other EU Member States and other EU budget operational developments.