Several Government departments including Transport, Foreign Affairs and Culture, Communications and Sport will be worst affected by the planned cuts to their budgets to pay for overspending in the Department of Education.
The situation, which relates to current expenditure and not capital projects, is confirmed in the full list of figures which have been released by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to Social Democrats TD Cian O'Callaghan.
Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week earlier this month, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Jack Chambers told said Government departments may have to reduce their expected spending this year by between 0.1% and 1.4% as a direct result of increased financial demands on the Department of Education.
Listen back: Minister Jack Chambers on budgetary overruns
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
At the time, Mr Chambers said the levies are the result of overspending in the Department of Education in the region of €600- €700 million, which has been widely linked to increased demands on special education places and the wider sector.
He also announced plans for an enhanced oversight spending group to make the final call on spending in some departments
While Mr Chambers described the budget reductions as levies, many other Cabinet ministers and senior civil servants were privately critical of the move.
Some have labelled the changes as cuts, suggesting departments working within their budgets are being made to pay for others which are not doing so.
Mr Chambers also said in early May that areas including housing, social protection and front-line pay will be protected.
The exact breakdown of the extent individual departments will be affected was unknown until now.
However, in a parliamentary question response to Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform outlined the full list.
It includes the following levies on individual departments' budgets:
- Department of the Taoiseach - 1.4%
- Department of Transport - 1.4%
- Department of Culture, Communications and Sport - 1.4%
- Department of Finance - 1.4%
- Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade - 1.4%
- Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht - 1.3%
- Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine - 1.3%
- Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment - 1.3%
- Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science - 1.3%
- Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment - 1.2%
- Department of Defence - 1.0%
- Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration - 0.7%
- Department of Health - 0.7%
- Department of Children, Disability and Equality - 0.6%
- Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation - 0.6%
- Department of Social Protection - 0.02%
- Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage - 0.1%
In a statement accompanying the parliamentary question response, Mr Chambers said:
"My department wrote to secretaries general of other departments, following the Government decision, informing them of the need to identify efficiencies and reforms and that this would form a key element of the estimates engagement for Budget 2027.
"It is a matter for each department to determine how the levy will be applied across the vote group and identify the efficiencies and reforms required to ensure this.
"My own department will also be undertaking this process in accordance with the requirements."
Mr O’Callaghan said: "The imposition of this levy will cause impact on the delivery of public services across a number of areas next year.
"Why should people reliant on using public transport or families supporting third level students for example be penalised for budget over-runs in a Government department?
"The Minister for Public Expenditure is happy to dole out the punishment to different groups of people but has failed to take any responsibility for his department’s failure to budget correctly."
