Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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119. To ask the Minister for Finance his Department's current estimate of Ireland's EU budget contribution for 2015; when he expects this amount to be paid [40639/16]

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).

Details on EU Budget payments and public sector receipts are published annually by the Department of Finance in the Budget Statistics bulletin which is available on the Department's website. As outlined in that publication,  in 2015 Ireland contributed €1,952m to the EU budget.

Ireland will have to make a payment to the EU budget as a result of the recent revision to GNI for 2015. Under EU budget rules, GNI data revisions are taken into account in future budget contributions . In this case, the payment associated with 2015 will be paid in mid-2017. The final figure to be paid over will not be known until 2017.

Separately, at the end of 2016 Ireland will make a payment towards the Own Resources Decision (ORD), some of which will be associated with the years 2014 and 2015 for the accounting purposes of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP).  However, the figure published in the Budget Statistics bulletin is a cash-based figure and will not be impacted by this.