David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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205. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the total Covid-19-related spend in 2020 by his Department, agency and budget line item; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16271/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The 2020 Revised Estimates Volume published in December 2019 provided my Department with an original gross allocation of €970.908 million for use last year. The Estimate also permitted the Department to carryover €42.5 million in unspent 2019 capital appropriations for use in 2020.

The Revised Estimate actually presented to and approved by the Dáil on 30th June 2020, increased the Department’s 2020 allocation to €1.453.9 billion. The Department subsequently had a Further Revised Estimate in November approved by the Dáil which further increased the Department’s 2020 gross allocation to €1.907 billion.

This €937 million increase in funding in the Department’s Vote, of which €919 million was capital, was provided to enable the Department, its Offices and Agencies to roll out a myriad of Covid and Brexit focussed schemes and initiatives necessary to assist businesses and consumers impacted by the challenges of the pandemic and the fallout of the changed trading relationship with the UK.

The Department’s current allocation increased by €17.969 million. The transfer of employment and trade functions into the Department accounted for an additional €1.969 million of this funding. The July Stimulus accounted for the remaining €16 million and was provided to support the Department and its Agencies in their responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, as set out below.

- IDA Ireland €10m

- Enterprise Ireland €1.7m

- Local Enterprise Offices €1.3m

- DETE €3m

The additional €919 million capital allocated to the DETE Vote for Covid measures in 2020 was distributed to the particular Programmes set out in the Table below:

Table: REV Change 2020 Capital (€.000)

It should also be borne in mind that in addition to the increased allocations provided to the DETE Vote in the June and November Estimate/Further Revised Estimate, elements of the core funding for the existing programmes on the Department’s Vote were adapted to assist in the response to the pandemic.

In terms of actual Covid-related expenditure in 2020, it is estimated that of the additional €937 million Covid and Brexit monies beyond the initial Revised Estimate allocation for the DETE Vote in 2020, just over €771 million was drawn down and expended in 2020. This funding was expended on the Programmes/Subheads sets out in the Table below.

Whilst programme spend was somewhat less than what was allocated, this was due to a number of factors, not least the nature of the specific Covid Schemes rolled out by the Department’s Agencies whereby in some instances there are time lags between applications/projects being approved, projects being completed, and applications then being submitted for payment. Nevertheless, a significant proportion of the capital monies that were not spent in 2020 will be carried over for use by my Department and our Agencies this year.