Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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139. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the amount of Covid-19 contingency funding that was drawn down in the first five months of 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29640/22]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Budget 2022 made provision for up to €7 billion in funding to continue our response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Following the Revised Estimates in December 2021, €3.9 billion of this funding remained unallocated. This contingency is held in reserve centrally to allow Government flexibility to respond to emerging needs during the year.

In February 2022, the Government announced a suite of measures to assist with costs of living pressures. This included the Electricity Credit to domestic account holders, which had an estimated cost of €400 million. This required a Supplementary Estimate for the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, given the scale of this amount in relation to the original Estimate for Vote 29. This Supplementary Estimate was brought before the Dáil in March to provide an additional allocation of €271 million with the remaining cost funded through reallocation of existing Vote 29 resources. Following this development, the remaining contingency balance stood at just under €3.7 billion.

While this is the only draw down from the contingency funding allocated in Departmental Estimates to date, there are significant pressures and commitments on the remaining funding including:

1. Further Covid support measures, including the response to the Omicron wave will require additional funding over that foreseen at the time of Budget 2022. This includes income and employment support schemes in the Department of Social Protection, Department of Health Covid-19 response, the targeted Commercial Rates Waiver for Q1 2022 and Department of Education Covid response measures. These Covid-19 expenditure pressures are evident in the end May expenditure reported in the Fiscal Monitor with gross current expenditure in the Department of Social Protection €315 million ahead of profile and €291 million ahead of profile in the Department of Health.

2. Additional allocations may be required to fund the other cost of living measures announced in February and April.

3. Costs related to the humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine will also need to be provided.

Further allocations from the contingency will be considered later in the year taking account of any offsetting underspends.