Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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133. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of times funding was moved across budget lines within his Department in a process known as virement; the name and purpose of the fund the money was taken from; the name and purpose of the fund the money was transferred to; the dates upon which he approved of such transfers, since he took office; if the Department of Public Expenditure was consulted prior to the transfer; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12266/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, virement is the process whereby savings on one or more subheads on a Department’s Vote can be used to meet excess expenditure on another subhead or subheads within that Vote.

The virement process is essentially governed by the provisions of the Public Financial Procedures as published by the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. The procedures require that the prior approval of DPENPDR should be obtained when virement is proposed. In instances where there is doubt as to the actual amounts involved in any proposed virement, the procedures require that the Department in question applies to DPENPDR for provisional sanction where it is clear that there will be an excess on a subhead and/or subheads which can be met from savings on another subhead and/or subheads. In such instances, the procedures require that definitive sanction for the virement should be sought when the Appropriation Account has been prepared and the actual amounts involved are known.

In the case of my own Department, the Department has had occasion to obtain sanction for virements on a number of occasions in previous years. The Deputy will appreciate, however, that I only took up my appointment as Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment on 17th December 2022. Whilst definitive sanctions for virement have not yet been sought since my appointment, my Department did apply for and received provisional sanction last December for certain virements to meet excesses on a number of Subheads on our Vote. The excesses involved additional expected expenditure on the administration pay allocation for the Department, the pay allocation of the IDA, the pension allocation to Enterprise Ireland and on the allocations to the subscriptions for a number of international organisations. Savings to meet the expected aforementioned excesses were achieved on the allocations provided to a number of the Department’s Regulatory bodies including the National Standards Authority of Ireland, the Health and Safety Authority and the Workplace Relations Programme. Definitive sanction for the required virements will be sought from DPENPDR once my Department’s 2022 Appropriation Account has been prepared and the actual amounts are known in accordance with the provisions of the Public Financial Procedures Guidelines.

The Deputy will appreciate, therefore, that my Department is fully committed to implementing the process for seeking virements as prescribed in the aforementioned Public Financial Procedures.