Departments sought hundreds of millions more than allocated

The departments of health and education sought almost €700 million more in funding than they were allocated in the budget, official papers show.

Submissions to the comprehensive review of expenditure reveal government departments asked for many hundreds of millions more than they were ultimately allocated for the next three years.

The Department of Education told the review it needed nearly €500 million in additional State funding this year to deal with upward pressures.

The education system ultimately received an increase in its budget of €60 million for next year, or a little over 10 per cent of what was sought.

In its submission the Department of Education said among the funding requirements it had identified was €55 million to deal with pupil demographics.

“It is clear that most of the upward pressures outlined are on a scale that simply could not be accommodated within the existing funding envelope, which has historically been adjusted to allow for demographic changes. Failure to adjust for demographic change will require increases to the pupil teacher ratio for each of the next three years and beyond.”

The Department of Health said it needed €200 million in additional funding for each of the next three years to deal with demographic pressures.

While the health service did receive more than €300 million in additional State funding for 2015 with more to be realised from savings and efficiencies, the demand for €200 million more in its allocation for 2016 and 2017 was not met in the official expenditure ceilings published last week.

The Department of Defence told the review that it was not in a position to propose any savings that would involve significant policy shifts given that a process to draw up a new White Paper on defence was currently underway.

The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform said that the objective of the comprehensive expenditure review process was to provide the Government with a comprehensive set of decision options that would serve to:

*re-align spending with the revised Programme for Government priorities;

*meet overall fiscal objectives;

*explore new and innovative ways of delivering Government policy in a reformed public sector.

Departments were asked by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to come up with options for living within set spending ceilings.

They were also asked separately to draw up proposals on how they would manage if spending was reduced by 5 per cent.

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin told the Dáil the primary purpose of the comprehensive review of expenditure was to provide an evidence base for Government decisions on ministerial expenditure ceilings for the next three years.

These three-year expenditure ceilings were set out in tables published by the Minister on Budget day last Tuesday.

In addition to analysis carried out by various Government departments, more than 60 submissions were received from individuals and representative bodies as part of a public consultation process announced by Mr Howlin during the summer.