A table giving details of the consolidation required to achieve the General Government deficit targets as set out in the EU/IMF Programme was included in the Medium-Term Fiscal Statement (MTFS) last November. In line with the figures presented in the MTFS, the Government is planning a €3.5 billion adjustment in Budget 2013, consisting of €2.25 billion in expenditure adjustments and €1.25 billion of revenue raising measures. The revenue raising measures will consist of €0.95 billion in new measures and €0.3 billion of a carry-forward from 2012.
As the Deputy is aware, my ministerial colleague Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin TD has primary responsibility for expenditure issues. In relation to expenditure, the MTFS shows €2.25 billion in spending adjustments will be part of the budgetary arithmetic for Budget 2013, €1.7 billion of which is related to current expenditure and €0.55 billion related to capital expenditure. I understand that the ongoing impact of policy measures introduced in the Comprehensive Expenditure Report 2012-2014 (CER) is being assessed as part of the ongoing planning to meet the agreed Departmental ceilings for 2013.