Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 12 February 2026
290. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether the pension increases payable in respect of former Department of Posts and Telegraphs service under the Eircom superannuation defined benefit pension scheme are classified by his Department as current expenditure or capital expenditure; and the reason such expenditure would be subject to external scrutiny beyond the Department. [11434/26]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, Exchequer data is published annually as part of the Finance Accounts and available online at the following link:
www.gov.ie/en/department-of-finance/collections/finance-accounts/
Expenditure from the Central Fund to cover the pension costs of former Civil Servants in commercial state companies (i.e. Eircom, An Post and Coillte) is also published as part of the Fiscal Monitor publications, at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-finance/collections/latest-fiscal-monitors/
These payments, when paid out of the Central Fund, are recorded as part of Statement 1.6 of the Finance Accounts, and are therefore classified as ‘Non Voted Current Exchequer Expenditure’.
There is a statutory requirement for the Finance Accounts to be prepared (according to Section 4 of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Amendment) Act, 1993). Under this section, there must be a detailed analysis and classification of the payments into and out of the Central Fund conducted by the Comptroller and Auditor General. The Finance Accounts therefore represent the audited outturn in respect of the Central Fund.
