Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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140. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to outline any plans to establish a mechanism for central oversight to monitor the amount of the allocated funding from the carbon tax that is actually being expended on the target schemes and programmes, as highlighted by the C&AG it will not be possible to say how much of the carbon tax will actually be spent in targeted areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5156/25]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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On 30 September 2024, the Office of the Comptroller & Auditor General published its Report to Dáil Éireann on the results of the examination of the 2023 Accounts of Government Departments and Offices.

Chapter 18 of the report, on the administration of carbon tax receipts, included a finding that of the €1.36bn carbon tax revenues allocated over the period 2020-2023, 61% was verified as being spent in year as recorded through carbon tax-specific subheads. Of the remaining 39%, 17% had been allocated to the Department of Social Protection and spent in year but not recorded in carbon tax-specific subheads. In those years, carbon tax funding was provided to part-fund the Working Family Payment, Qualified Child Increase, Fuel Allowance, and the Living Alone Allowance schemes. Although from an audit perspective, this funding has not been accounted for in carbon-tax-specific subheads, the funding has been clearly allocated and the expenditure is accounted for through the normal Vote and Accounting Officer frameworks that apply to every use of the public resources, and there were not any significant underspends in the expenditure provided to those schemes in the years in question.

As is standard procedure with all monies voted by the Oireachtas, any of the funding that is not spent by Departments during the year and not carried over via formal arrangements for deferred surrender of unspent capital is liable for surrender back to the Exchequer at the year-end. The C&AG found that 19% of the funding under examination was surrendered to the Exchequer in this manner, with the remainder deferred and spent in the following year in accordance with these arrangements. While any underspends are ultimately the responsibility of the Accounting Officer of the relevant Vote, these should be viewed in the context of environmental factors such as the public health restrictions imposed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the supply chain impacts of the war in Ukraine during the years examined.

All items in receipt of funding as a result of increases in the carbon tax are subject to the usual mechanisms which apply to the agreement, monitoring and reporting of voted allocations as outlined in Public Financial Procedures, which seek to ensure administrative efficiency and accuracy in public spending. It should be noted that it is ultimately the responsibility of the Accounting Officer of each Vote to ensure funds under their vote are spent appropriately, including responsibility to account for any underspends against allocations.

The role of certifying the financial statements of each public body, in which detail on annual over- and under-spends is reported, is held by the Comptroller and Auditor General. My Department does not propose to supplant this role in establishing a duplicate mechanism to account for outturn spending on allocations voted for use by Dáil Éireann. All detail on the outturn spending on each of these allocations is included in the audited Appropriation Accounts of the relevant Departments and Offices, available on the website of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General.