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Summer Economic Statement

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 July 2019

Tuesday, 2 July 2019

Questions (225, 226)

Pearse Doherty

Question:

225. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the reason annex 1 on page 38 of the summer economic statement lists €1.1 billion in pre-committed capital spending and is listed elsewhere as €0.7 billion. [28145/19]

View answer

Pearse Doherty

Question:

226. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the portion of the €1.1 billion that is smoothed; and the impact or size of this spending before it was smoothed as per annex 1 on page 38 of the summer economic statement in pre-committed capital spending. [28146/19]

View answer

Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 225 and 226 together.

Table 6 of the Summer Economic Statement sets out a budgetary package of €2.8 billion and outlines pre-committed expenditure of €1.9 billion. Inclusive in this pre-committed expenditure is an increase in capital expenditure of €0.7 billion as set out in the National Development Plan. Further to this, there is an expenditure reserve of up to €0.2 billion to be established in 2020 to accommodate funding requirements for the National Broadband Plan and National Children’s Hospital. This expenditure reserve relates to capital expenditure and consequently, this would result in an overall nominal increase in capital expenditure of up to €0.9 billion. After taking account of the expenditure pre-commitments and the expenditure reserve, this leaves €0.7 billion of unallocated funding available in 2020.

Table 7 and Annex 1 of the Summer Economic Statement set out indicative estimates of ‘fiscal space’ out to 2024. The amount of €1.1 billion shown in respect of capital/NDP expenditure in Annex 1 takes into account the smoothing over a four-year period in accordance with the Expenditure Benchmark methodology. Consequently, as this calculation reflects the significant increases in Gross Fixed Capital Formation since 2016, the capital expenditure impact on the fiscal space calculation exceeds the nominal increase in capital expenditure outlined above.

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