Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 27 January 2021
239. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Finance the budgetary analysis being carried out to plan for long Covid-19 impacts in his Department and each State agency under the remit of his Department in tabular form. [4486/21]
View answerMy Department's Budget 2021 was framed on the continued presence of the virus in Ireland into 2021. It was prepared against a background of extraordinary uncertainty regarding near-term economic and budgetary prospects. As a result, Budget 2021 was exclusively focused on 2021; to look any further would not seem realistic in the circumstances. It did however, allow for additional contingency funds to provide Government with the means to react to evolving circumstances over the course of the year depending on the trajectory of the virus.
A medium-term fiscal strategy will be published with the Stability Programme Update in Spring 2021, which will provide an opportunity to take stock and chart the path forward.
There are 17 bodies under the aegis of my Department. Of these, it should be noted that the Credit Union Restructuring Board was operationally wound down in 2017 and is awaiting formal dissolution, and the Irish Banking Resolution Corporation is in liquidation and as it does not have any remaining employees, no budgetary analysis relating to COVID-19 is being carried out.
The remaining bodies have provided the following information in relation to budgetary analysis being carried out to plan for long COVID-19 impacts:
