Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 February 2013
209. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance further to the publication of the December 2012 Exchequer statement if he will explain the €300 million entitled Repayment of Loans to Social Insurance Fund; if he will confirm if there are further loans outstanding from the Social Insurance Fund; and if so, the amount and the scheduled repayment dates. [6627/13]
View answerSection 18 of the Social Welfare and Pensions Act, 2012, which amended Section 9 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act, 2005, enables the Minister for Finance, having consulted with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, to advance moneys from the Central Fund to the Social Insurance Fund via an account with the Paymaster General in order to maintain sufficient amount of moneys in the current account of the latter Fund to meet the sums payable from it. Due to the restricted number of banking days in the month of December, it was deemed necessary to ultilise this provision for cash flow purposes as payovers of the Social Insurance Fund’s PRSI income, which is collected via the Revenue ROS system, may be subject to payment transfer delay. An advance of 300 million euro, which was made from the Central Fund, was repaid in full by the Social Insurance Fund on 28 December 2012 upon the receipt of sufficient PRSI income. The repayment is reflected in the 2012 December Exchequer Statement. There are currently no advances from the Central Fund to the Social Insurance Fund.
Since mid-2010, the Social Insurance Fund is in receipt of subvention from voted moneys in order to bridge the gap between its income and expenditure. This subvention is provided for under section 9 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005. As a normal part of the subvention funding, the Fund will receive advances from the Paymaster General’s Supply Account, which in turn is funded from issues from the Central Fund. I am advised by the Department of Social Protection that at 31 December 2012 such advances were of the order of 125 million euro.This amount was not repayable by virtue of the subvention arrangement and as it was expended it become a charge on the Vote for Social Protection in January 2013 in accordance with Public Financial Procedures.
