Vol. 551 No. 4
121 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Finance his views on the level of public spending as part of the national GDP; the categories and percentages of spending; his views on the areas in which the Government spend more than most other EU countries (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10917/02]
The internationally comparable measure used to compare expenditure across the EU is general government expenditure, information on which is collected and disseminated by Eurostat. This covers all elements of spending by central and local government, not just the annual expenditure voted by Dáil Éireann. It is difficult to make sound comparisons between spending levels in Ireland and other member states as the figures for measuring levels of output need to be treated with caution. The gap between GDP and GNP is significantly greater in Ireland than in other member states primarily because of outflows of corporate profits attributable to overseas owners of foreign owned businesses located here. Adjusting for this, and using Irish GNP figures instead, an Irish expenditure figure of about 42.5% of output, GNP, can be compared with an EU average of about 47% of GDP. EU tax levels are correspondingly higher.
Any assessment of these overall figures should take account of a range of factors, such as Ireland's much younger population which means that expenditure on health and pensions is expected to be lower on demographic grounds, Irish debt-service – interest – expenditure is lower than the EU average, Irish expenditure on defence is also lower than the EU average, Ireland currently spends more on public investment than the EU average, unemployment levels and costs here are much lower compared to other member states and in Ireland there is widespread use of private provision for pension purposes which is not the case in some EU countries.
Eurostat does not collect or disseminate general government expenditure figures broken down by expenditure categories such as health, social security, education and defence. It only publishes material classified on a national accounts basis interest, subsidies, transfers, fixed capital formation and expenditure on goods and services. This information does not facilitate the type of comparison sought by the Deputy.
