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Departmental Budgets

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 October 2019

Thursday, 3 October 2019

Questions (79)

Michael McGrath

Question:

79. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the amount provided in 2020 for demographic costs by Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40401/19]

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Written answers

The Mid-Year Expenditure Report 2019 sets out estimates of certain demographic pressures in the areas of Health, Social Protection and Education as pre-committed elements of the current expenditure baseline for the period to 2022. These are primary areas of current expenditure which are particularly impacted by demographic changes. For 2020 an amount of €0.45 billion has been allocated across these areas. This is presented at Departmental level in the following table.

Table 1: Demographic Allocations 2020

 

2020

€m

Education & Skills Group

54

Employment Affairs & Social Protection Group

260

Health Group

137

Total

451

These allocations are informed by the paper ‘Budgetary Impacts of Changing Demographics 2017 – 2027’, published by the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES), which can be found on the IGEES website here: https://igees.gov.ie/budgetary-impact-of-changing-demographics-2017-to-2027/.

This paper covers a number of areas of expenditure, including pensions, child benefit, education provision and health schemes such as the Nursing Home Support Scheme. These pure demographic costs are factored in to Ministerial Expenditure Ceilings for Health, Social Protection and Education. As part of the 2019 Spending Review process, an update of this paper is due to be published shortly. This forthcoming paper will again look at the key areas of Health, Social Protection and Education and will examine demographic pressures in these areas over a ten year period.

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