Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 March 2022
67. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the contingency allocation he has set aside for Covid-related matters in 2022; the amount that has been drawn down to date in 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11370/22]
View answerThe Budget 2022 expenditure ceilings reflect funding of €6.8 billion for our public services to address the challenges of Covid-19 with a further €0.2 billion of investments under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Just over €4 billion of this amount was held in reserve.
In REV 2022, just under €0.1 of the contingency was allocated with €51 million to Education for term 2 Covid-19 measures, €25 million for Live Entertainment, €10 million for a support scheme for travel agents, and €10 million for a Covid mitigation redundancy and insolvency scheme.
Key measures have been extended as necessary since the beginning of the pandemic in order to continue essential support, most recently in response to the impact of the Omicron wave where a number of further measures were agreed by Government including for the EWSS and PUP and in respect of a further Commercial Rates Waiver for particularly impacted sectors.
Budget 2022, set out the planned phasing out of the EWSS. Reflecting the impact of the public health response to Omicron, Government agreed to extend the enhanced rate of subsidy for a further two months across December 2021 and January 2022 and also to the reopening of the scheme for certain businesses.
In January, Government agreed that businesses availing of EWSS that were directly impacted by the Public Health Regulations introduced in December, would continue to receive the enhanced rates of subsidy for the month of February, with the graduated step-down in subsidy rates being delayed by one month. Such firms would continue to receive support under the scheme until 31 May 2022.
Any additional costs arising from these measures, along with costs due to increased demand on testing and on the Covid Illness Benefit Scheme, would fall to be met from the contingency reserve. This will leave funds available in the reserve to be allocated, if required, for targeted measures depending on the situation with the virus later in the year.
