Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 July 2022
354. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the amount of unspent money contained in the Covid Contingency Fund as of 30 June 2022; the estimated expenditure from the fund on the provision of supports and services to refugees from Ukraine and Covid-19 related expenditure to 31 December 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37875/22]
View answerIn Budget 2022, provision was made for up to €7 billion to continue our response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Some €3 billion of this was allocated at Departmental level, while €4 billion contingency funding was held in reserve centrally to allow Government flexibility to respond to emerging needs during 2022. Following some additional allocations as part of the Revised Estimates in December 2021, €3.9 billion of this funding remained unallocated.
Due to the impact of rising costs of living, Government announced a package of measures in February to provide support for households. This included the Electricity Credit to domestic account holders, which had an estimated cost of €400 million. This measure required a Supplementary Estimate for the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications. This was brought before the Dáil in March to provide an additional of €271 million with the remaining cost funded through reallocation of existing resources within the Vote.
As of 30 June 2022, the allocation to Vote 29 is the only one that has been voted by the Dáil since the Revised Estimates. Resulting from this, the remaining contingency balance not yet allocated stood at just under €3.7 billion.
While this is the only additional draw down from the contingency funding allocated in Departmental Estimates this year to end June, there are significant pressures and commitments on the remaining funding including:
1. An additional Supplementary Estimate of €110 million was presented to the Dáil at the beginning of July for the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications to make funds available to address security of energy supply for winter 2023/24 as set out in the EirGrid, Electricity and Turf (Amendment) Bill 2022.
2. Further Covid support measures, including the response to the Omicron wave will require additional funding over that foreseen at the time of Budget 2022. This includes income and employment support schemes in the Department of Social Protection, Department of Health Covid-19 response, the targeted Commercial Rates Waiver for Q1 2022 and Department of Education Covid response measures. These Covid-19 expenditure pressures are evident in the end June expenditure reported in the Fiscal Monitor with gross current expenditure in the Department of Social Protection €292 million ahead of profile and €284 million ahead of profile in the Department of Health.
3. In addition, there will be further Covid-19 related spending requirements during 2022, in particular depending on developments in the trajectory of the virus over the winter period.
4. Additional allocations may be required to fund the other cost of living measures announced during the course of 2022.
5. Costs related to the humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine will also need to be provided and will be significant. To date approximately €186 million has been spent across a number of Departments.
Further allocations from the contingency will be considered later in the year taking account of any offsetting underspends.
