Departmental Expenditure

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 July 2015

Thursday, 16 July 2015

Questions (239)

Paul Murphy

Question:

239. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide a breakdown, by Department, of the annual amount of current and capital spending cuts for each year since 2008. [30401/15]

Written answers

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform

Gross voted expenditure was reduced from €62.4bn in 2008 to €54bn in 2014. Budget 2015 marked the first time since the onset of the crisis when reductions in overall voted expenditure were not required to meet our fiscal targets.

In the period between 2008 and 2014, gross voted current expenditure was reduced by €2.9bn with voted capital expenditure reduced by €5.5bn.

The following tables provide a breakdown of Departmental spending, split between current and capital, over the period. As the Deputy is aware, during the period there were several transfers of functions between various Departments; the notes to the tables indicate the key changes in this regard.

Table 1: Total Gross Voted Current Expenditure by Vote Group

€m	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Total Vote	53,384	55,719	54,179	52,847	52,149	50,986	50,483
Agriculture	1,418	1,392	1,243	1,216	1,132	1,041	1,010
Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht	434	401	348	221	232	222	210
Children and Youth Affairs1	-	-	-	209	414	399	952
Communications, Energy and Natural Resources	360	356	336	323	316	319	312
Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs2	388	338	328	99	-	-	-
Defence	1,053	999	947	914	893	882	889
Education	8,465	8,589	8,954	8,636	8,534	8,332	8,291
Enterprise	1,462	1,400	665	358	351	338	322
Environment	954	865	642	589	450	451	451
Finance	1,260	1,299	1,233	423	414	427	417
Foreign Affairs	1,007	787	741	726	715	690	671
Health	15,356	15,470	14,737	14,014	13,882	13,745	13,355
Justice	2,565	2,514	2,362	2,390	2,243	2,215	2,196
Public Expenditure and Reform3	-	-	-	789	868	787	832
Social Protection	17,741	20,435	20,800	20,910	20,730	20,235	19,747
Taoiseach	187	176	165	181	151	146	142
Transport	733	698	678	850	825	756	686

1 Functions relating to Children and Youth Affairs transferred from the following Votes during 2011: 26 (Education & Skills), 39 (Health); 27 (Community, Equality & Gaeltacht Affairs) and 41 (Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs) and funding was transferred in 2014 from the Health Group to Children and Youth Affairs in the course of establishment of the Child and Family Agency.

2 The Functions, personnel and associated funding of this Vote were transferred to the following Votes during 2011; Vote 6 (Department of Finance); Vote 19 (Justice & Equality); Vote 20 (Garda Síochána); Vote 25 (Environment, Community & Local Government); Vote 31 (Agriculture, Fisheries & Food); Vote 32 (Transport, Tourism & Sport); Vote 35 (Arts, Heritage & the Gaeltacht); Vote 38 (Social Protection); Vote 39 (Health) and Vote 43 (Children and Youth Affairs).

3 The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform was established in 2011 with this Vote Group incorporating certain Votes and functions previously within the Finance Group.

Table 2: Total Gross Voted Capital Expenditure by Vote Group

€m	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Total Vote	9,011	7,333	6,385	4,515	3,809	3,387	3,468
Agriculture	687	546	488	206	186	165	165
Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht	298	137	113	56	43	41	58
Children and Youth Affairs	-	-	-	5	8	8	45
Communications, Energy and Natural Resources	128	117	164	123	90	75	105
Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs	153	121	107	14	-	-	-
Defence	30	20	15	13	8	9	9
Education	830	767	787	557	410	440	556
Enterprise	474	516	486	487	500	454	420
Environment	2,215	1,809	1,467	1,008	802	698	393
Finance	351	181	179	5	5	5	3
Foreign Affairs	17	13	8	2	2	4	6
Health	683	503	398	347	350	347	386
Justice	148	118	104	75	55	59	75
Public Expenditure and Reform	-	-	-	113	119	125	121
Social Protection	11	8	7	7	5	12	18
Transport	2,986	2,477	2,061	1,496	1,225	944	1,109