Questions relating to the cyberattack of September 2023 went largely unanswered in the Senate on Monday as the Budget debate continued.

Douglas de Couto, the shadow finance minister, criticised the Government for allowing only 24 minutes for questions on the Ministry of Finance agenda.

He said the Government “skipped over” the costs associated with the incident in its brief.

Dr de Couto asked for a breakdown of $3.92 million associated costs, whether a ransom was paid and, if so, whether the ransom was paid by a third party that will likely have to be paid back.

He also asked why the Government has two business units related to the cyberattack in two different ministries and questioned the difference between them, whether any related contracts over $50,000 have been signed and, if so, whether they have been gazetted as required under public access to information regulations.

A total of $4.4 million — shared between the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Finance — was set aside to pay for “external vendors” hired to restore the Government’s IT systems and tighten security after the cyberattack.

Arianna Hodgson, the junior finance minister, said: “The associated costs is the result of payment for remediation efforts paid to consultants and others to return government systems back to operation.”

John Wight, independent senator, asked if she would answer the cyber-ransom question, to which Ms Hodgson responded: “Not at this time”.

Dr de Couto asked for clarification on whether Ms Hodgson did not know the answer to the question or chose not to answer it, but time was up on the debate before she could respond.

Kiernan Bell, the Vice-President of the Senate, questioned the $7 million spent under Policy Planning and Management, which she said probably went to professional services.

She asked: “Can you provide a breakdown of whether those professional services were in connection to the corporate income tax and, if so, how much?”

Ms Hodgson said: “This did include some spend on the corporate income tax. This was to support the technical work of modelling and forecasting. There were three public consultations and resulting issued draft instructions. At this time, we can’t give final figures for these expenses as not all invoices have been received.”

Dr de Couto asked Ms Hodgson to provide an estimate of when the corporate income tax authority board will be selected and about the timeline for its establishment as a stand-alone body.

Ms Hodgson responded: “The development of the legislation is under way. The House will sit again in May this year and it is anticipated legislation will be tabled for debate on this matter during that session. The board for the entity will not be announced until after establishing legislation.”

The Corporate Income Tax Act is scheduled to take effect in 2025. Once passed, 15 per cent will be charged on the profits of multinational enterprises with more than €750 million of revenue annually.

Ms Bell asked how the National Anti-Money Laundering Committee was able to accomplish its objectives given the lack of full-time staffing.

Ms Bell said: “I am assuming it was a cost centre in another ministry or was outsourced.

“How did we get so much done with no employees identified as connected to that department?”

The junior minister indicated that out of the budget for the committee, $364,000 was included for two people.

Ms Hodgson said: “That was a matter of full-time consultants fulfilling those duties.”

She said duties were also carried out by the former head of the unit under contract with support staff shared, and the acting chair who is overseeing the programme.

She added: “Namlac is comprised of a number of internal government departments and external agencies.”

Dr de Couto asked why the Land Tax unit was allocated an additional $4 million in the Budget.

Ms Hodgson said: “Land tax increases are based on analysis of recent tax collections data, so the increase is related to the debt collection activities of the Office of the Tax Commissioner.”

Debate will continue in the Senate on Wednesday.

The Budget must be signed by the Governor by the end of the month for the Government to operate over the next financial year.