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Departmental Budgets

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 9 September 2020

Wednesday, 9 September 2020

Questions (118)

Gerald Nash

Question:

118. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide an updated projection for spending by each Department on the basis of the Exchequer figures for August 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22943/20]

View answer

Written answers

Total Gross voted expenditure to end-August 2020 amounted to €52,076 million. This is €10,060 million (23.9%) ahead of the same period in 2019 and €7,827million (17.7%) ahead of the profile for 2020. Of this, gross voted current expenditure of €47,946 million is €9,293 million (24.0%) ahead on the same period last year and €7,561 million (18.7%) ahead of profile. Gross voted capital expenditure of €4,129 million is €767 million (22.8%) ahead on the same period in 2019 and €266 million (6.9%) ahead of profile.

The profiles against which this spend is reported were published in February of this year, based on the overall gross voted amount of €70.4 billion set out in the Revised Estimates Volume (REV) 2020 published in December 2019, and as such, they do not reflect additional spending in relation to Covid-19. Consequently, the Departmental overspends versus profile highlight the areas where additional Covid-19 related expenditure has been allocated.

The most significant areas of overspend relate to payments of approximately €6 billion in respect of Covid-19 by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, roughly broken down as €3.3 billion in relation to the Pandemic Unemployment Payment and €2.7 billion in relation to the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme.

Overall expenditure in the Department of Health is €1.2 billion above profile for end-August. This is due to the drawdown of funds for the HSE in relation to Covid-19 including for PPE, Ventilators, the Private Hospital Agreement, and Testing and Tracing. Capital expenditure in the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation is €556m ahead of profile. The main driver for this is the additional funding granted on the Enterprise Ireland programme and other Business Support Grants, allocated in light of COVID-19.

From the beginning of the crisis to end-June, a wide range of supports were introduced. These include in particular the Pandemic Unemployment Payment and the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme, significant additional resources for our Health sector and a range of supports for businesses. In July, the Government launched the July Stimulus, a €7.4 billion package of tax and expenditure measures, designed to support the economy as businesses and society reopen. The purpose of these measures is to provide additional targeted supports to stimulate activity across the economy, assist firms and support employment. As outlined at that time, these measures brought the overall increase in expenditure for 2020 to an estimated €16.2 billion, relative to the overall spending estimate of €70.4 billion set out in the REV 2020, also taking into account further spending that may be required to support key sectors as the year progresses.

Work is ongoing to restate the 2020 Revised Estimates to take account of the additional spending arising from Covid-19 and also the impact of the Departmental transfers of functions. As part of the Budget process, the 2020 Estimates will be updated to reflect these additional resources as well as to reflect the impact of Transfers of Functions on Departmental expenditure ceilings, with the estimated outturn for the year also being published in the White Paper - Estimates of Receipts and Expenditure in advance of the Budget.

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