Dáil Éireann Debate, Monday - 11 September 2023
552. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the reason for current expenditure running €202 million behind profile, as outlined in the Mid-Year Expenditure Report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37479/23]
View answerThe Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Paschal Donohoe published the Mid-year expenditure report on 19th July 2023. The report highlighted that my Department's current expenditure was running €202 million behind profile.
The main driver of this underspend in Current expenditure versus profile arises in:
• Subhead A18: TBESS: Non-Pay (€195.293m behind profile) variance relates to the difficulty in estimating uptake of the scheme.
A small number of other Subheads are running slightly behind profile due to drawdown timing issues and challenges recruiting staff in a tight labour market.
The June 2023 expenditure returns for the DETE vote excluding the once-off non-core TBESS scheme, demonstrate an underspend of 4% on core current allocation.
My department will continue to monitor the spending of its exchequer allocation across all business areas to deliver on our key strategic policy objectives.
