The Oireachtas finance committee has voted against asking former minister for finance Paschal Donohoe to make himself available to answer questions about the State’s €141.4 million contribution to the World Bank.
Opposition TDs said the State provided €10 million more than the institution requested, seven months before Mr Donohoe resigned to take up his new post with the World Bank in Washington, DC.
The committee, which on Wednesday voted eight to five against asking Mr Donohoe to answer questions on the matter, agreed to ask the Department of Finance for a full briefing and supporting documentation on the matter.
The issue was raised earlier in the Dáil by People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy who took issue with figures given by Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Tuesday, based on a formal business case prepared by the Department of Finance.
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Mr Martin described the €141.4 million as a “low option” and the “high option” as €158.9 million. Mr Murphy said he had read the business case, which listed five options for contribution.
Option three of €131.4 million was what the World Bank was asking for “and the €141.4 million was the higher-level option, not the lower option”, Mr Murphy said.
Mr Murphy asked the Taoiseach to “explain why we paid €10 million more”. Mr Martin said: “We’re talking about the 75 poorest countries globally that are supported by this organisation, so that was the context.”
He would “reconcile” the figures he had received from a Department of Finance presentation with Mr Murphy’s.
“I’ve asked that the business case would be published,” he said. “There was an FOI [freedom-of-information request] in relation to that and there was a suggestion of a contribution from officials of €150 million if we wished to go further. The Minister agreed on €141.4 million.”
On Tuesday, Mr Martin told the Dáil options included going from no contribution, to maintaining their previous €105 million contribution. “The low option was €141.4 million. The high option was €158.9 million.”
The Taoiseach said negotiations on a new round of the World Bank’s International Development Association funding for 2025 to 2028 concluded in December 2024. Ireland could not make a pledge at the time because of the general election on November 29th and the interregnum before a new government was formed. The payment was finalised in April 2025.
“The World Bank developed multiple funding scenarios: low, medium, high and very high,” Mr Martin said. It gave indicative contribution levels for all donors including Ireland.
He said the World Bank “grants zero- or low-interest loans to the world’s poorest countries and supports 75 of the poorest countries globally, including 39 in Africa. It is the largest single donor for basic social services in these countries.”
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said on Tuesday the €141.4 million payment was “way above what was required. It raises very serious questions and I believe the Government needs to make statements of clarification”.
Mr Murphy said: “It appears that the public paid a €10 million sweetener to the World Bank to ease the way for Paschal Donohoe to get his high-paying, €600,000-a-year top job there”.
He claimed department officials were advising not to give any more than the €131.4 million “yet Paschal Donohoe decided that we would give an extra €10 million to make €141 million”.
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said there was “potentially a serious conflict of interest” following Mr Donohoe’s decision “to excessively fund the World Bank to the tune of €10 million”.
Mr Tóibín called for Mr Donohoe to make himself available to the finance committee to answer questions.
In a statement, the Department of Finance said the new round was “negotiated and developed over the course of 12 months that concluded in a final pledging meeting in December of 2024″.
The potential contribution options “were based on the production of a business case” as required under Department of Public Expenditure guidelines.
“The recommended course of action reflected the outcome of this process, and this action was set out in a proposal for Government by the then minister for finance to his Cabinet colleagues, who endorsed the minister’s decision.”
