Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 July 2022
352. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the area from which funding will be drawn if the funding for the new public sector pay deal is not baselined in the Summer Economic Statement Table 1 budgetary decisions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37827/22]
View answerThe Summer Economic Statement (SES), published on 4th July 2022, sets out the key parameters for Budget 2023. This included an increase to the 2022 and 2023 core expenditure growth rates to 6 per cent and 6½ per cent respectively. These adjustments were made to respond to the challenging economic context, in particular regarding inflationary pressures.
To protect public services, core spending will increase by 6.5 per cent next year. This will result in a core expenditure ceiling of €85.8 billion in 2023. This ceiling will provide for an expenditure budgetary package of €5.65 billion over 2022 and 2023. This significant annual increase in expenditure balances the need to protect core public services and help to mitigate the cost of living pressures while ensuring that budgetary policy does not become part of the inflation problem.
As set out in the SES, €3 billion of this overall expenditure increase is required to fund the increase in capital expenditure set out in the National Development Plan, and to provide for costs relating to existing levels of service (ELS). These estimated ELS costs of c. €2.2 billion include funding for pressures in respect of demographics, carryover from Budget 2022 decisions and existing public service pay commitments. The National Development Plan has provided a further €0.8 billion of capital expenditure for 2023.
This leaves approximately €2.7 billion for new measures in Budget 2023, with €0.4 billion of this amount phased into 2022 to allow for early implementation of measures. Costs in relation to a new public service pay deal would be met from within this overall amount available for new measures.
