Oliver Mangan: Wealth funds are a welcome shift to greater long-term planning

There is scope for higher receipts, with the hike from 12.5% to 15% in the rate of corporate tax paid by larger companies coming into effect from next year.

Minister for Finance Michael McGrath and Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins Photos

In recent years, the Irish public finances have been faced with the need to provide for short-term but often substantial government expenditure policy responses to a number of external shocks, including Brexit, the covid pandemic, and to both the Ukrainian humanitarian and cost-of-living crises.

The framework adopted by the Department of Finance has been to separate out the use of temporary "non-core" measures to meet these short-term additional resource requirements, from the ongoing day-to-day "core" expenditure of government departments.