Paschal Donohoe gave extra €10m to World Bank in advance of his new job

Former finance minister Paschal Donohoe provided an extra €10million in funding to the World Bank than it had requested, Extra.ie can reveal. Documents obtained by Extra.ie show that the World Bank recommended a contribution of €131.4 million from Ireland from 2025 to 2028. However, Mr Donohoe opted to provide them with €141.4 million on April 24, 2025, despite officials in his department also having recommended significantly less, a move Sinn Fein said raised ‘serious questions’. Paschal Donohoe. Pic: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie Mr Donohoe resigned as finance minister in November to take up a job at the World Bank. Internal briefing documents for senior officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs, dated ­September 13, 2024, outline how its mandarins were ‘informally advised’ by the Department of Finance that Ireland’s pledge for the coming three-year period to the World Bank’s International Development Association ‘will likely be between €122 and €129million’. In a separate email chain, a DFA official said: ‘They refer to this as the “mid to high scenario”. A “high scenario” would mean c.€148 m (a 40% increase) but they said this was very unlikely,’ the official wrote. A decision was due to be made in November 2024, but this was delayed due to the general election at the end of that month, with a final decision not taken until April last year. Pic: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos On December 14, 2024, officials in the Department of Finance circulated a draft business case for Ireland’s contribution. At the time, Fianna Fáil’s Jack Chambers was finance minister. It contained five options: Do nothing; maintain the previous contribution of €105.9million; provide €131.4 million as recommended by the World Bank (24% increase); a ‘high-level’ option to provide €141.4 million (33% increase), or a ‘very high level’ option of providing €158.9 million (50% increase). Selecting the last option would have made Ireland the second-highest contributor worldwide, based on the rate of economic output per country. Pic: Colin Keegan/Collins Dublin The draft report noted that the contribution recommended by the World Bank of €131.4 million ‘would appear consistent with Ireland’s international development policy’. ‘It is also notable that this level of contribution would be in line with the level recommended by the World Bank Group and in excess of the average increase in contributions by other countries,’ it says. In relation to the option for €141.4 million, it says that this would ‘be well in excess of the average increase in contributions by other countries’. Pic: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie However, a separate official pointed out that ‘while it is accurate’ it ‘would not be remarkable either’ as countries such as Denmark (40%), Poland (100%) and Croatia (115%) were making significant increases. The draft report concluded that option 3, a payment of €131.4 million was the ‘preferred option’. Mr Donohoe was appointed as finance minister when the Government was formed in January 2025, swapping roles with Mr Chambers, who became minister for public expenditure. On March 21, an updated business case and memo were sent to Mr Donohoe and circulated with officials in the DFA, with a note saying it would be on the Cabinet agenda for April 8. The case was amended to say that both the €131.4 million and €141.4 million options were ‘in keeping with Ireland’s international development policy’. The conclusion notes that of the €141.4 million ‘a contribution at this level would be higher than the level envisaged for Ireland by the World Bank Group. ‘However, while the increase would be higher than option 3, the contribution as a share of Ireland’s economy would not be significantly higher.’ An official in the Department of Finance circulated the memo and business case and said that ‘these have not yet been approved by our minister but we do not expect to change. So you can use to prepare your (positive!) obs [observations]’. The memo was ultimately brought to Cabinet in the name of the Tánaiste and then-foreign affairs minister Simon Harris after agreement on the level of funding by Mr Donohoe. The announcement that €141.4 million was to be provided to the World Bank was made on April 24, 2025, with Mr Donohoe saying: ‘In light of the current international landscape, geopolitical tensions, and decisions by others in respect of commitments to Official Development Assistance, it is now more important than ever that we step up and make a contribution where we can.’ Seven months later, on November 18, Mr Donohoe announced he was resigning as finance minister and as Fine Gael TD for Dublin Central to take up a job as managing director at the World Bank in Washington DC. Sinn Féin’s deputy leader and finance spokesman Pearse Doherty told Extra.ie that the revelations were ‘very serious’ and raised ‘serious questions’. ‘We need to know why millions more was given to the World Bank than they even requested and why the original recommendation from the Department of Finance was changed by the new minister. It won’t be lost on people that this happened just before the process of preparing the budget that left workers and families worse off.’ He added: ‘The fact that Paschal Donohoe was appointed to a senior position in the World Bank shortly afterwards increases the need for complete transparency from Government on how this decision was made.’ A World Bank spokesman said: ‘Paschal Donohoe was selected by the World Bank Group on the basis of his extensive experience spanning both the public and private sectors.’ Mr Donohoe did not reply to a request for comment. A spokesman for the Department of Finance said the funding for the 21st replenishment of the World Bank’s IDA21 ‘was negotiated and developed over the course of 12 months that concluded in a final pledging meeting in December of 2024. ‘The IDA21 final scenarios and potential contribution options were based on the production of a business case, as required under… 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,’ he said.

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