Departments warned over spending demands

Government departments have been warned against having unrealistic spending expectations for the budget as the Public Expenditure Minister, Brendan Howlin, said there is a lot of “pent-up demand” to fund services.

Government ministers also ruled out changes to Irish Water and the utility’s charging regime.

Speaking in Wicklow at the Labour party’s think-in ahead of the Dáil’s return next week, Mr Howlin indicated there was minimal wriggle room to spend on improving services in next month’s budget. His department is expected to get half of the €1.5bn budget spend to put towards services.