Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 4 October 2018
74. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for Finance the workings that reconcile the pre-committed expenditure of €2.3 billion as outlined in table 4 of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council's pre-budget report and the pre-committed expenditure of €2.6 billion outlined in table 5 of the same report, specifically the effects of the rolling of capital expenditure over four years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40582/18]
View answerIn the Summer Economic Statement (SES) 2018 I outlined the breakdown of the nominal €2.6 billion increase in expenditure. This consisted of a €1.5 billion increase for capital expenditure and €1.1 billion for current expenditure (€0.4 billion for public sector pay increases, €0.4 billion for demographic costs and €0.3 billion of carryover costs).
Table 3 of the SES shows the resulting figure after smoothing the capital expenditure - 'j. Pre-committed fiscal space for expenditure', i.e. €2.1 billion.
The nominal increase of €1.5 billion for next year, combined with the previous three year's increases, resulted in a cost of €1.0 billion in fiscal space terms.
Finally, the €1.0 billion reported in 'k. Other' includes €0.8 billion available to be allocated as per footnote 3 in the document. The remaining €0.2 billion accounts for the presentational difference between the pre-committed expenditures shown in the SES and the Council's pre-budget statement.
The table below illustrates these details.
|
SES Table 3 |
€ billions |
|
j. pre-committed expenditure |
2.1 |
|
current expenditure |
1.1 |
|
capital expenditure (smoothed) |
1.0 |
|
k. Other |
1.0 |
|
other general government expenditure |
0.2 |
|
unallocated |
0.8 |
