Government urged to clarify 'virtually unprecedented' supplementary estimates 

Cabinet agreed to an additional €4.4bn to be spent across multiple departments

Overspend will include €722m for the Department of Social Protection for once-off cost-of-living measures. Picture: Larry Cummins

The Government has been urged to give "absolute clarity" on the additional €4.4bn being splashed out to pay for overspending across multiple departments this year.

The previous expenditure ceiling for 2022 was €87.6bn but will now increase to €90bn, under a proposal by Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath that was approved by Cabinet on Tuesday.

Mr McGrath got the Government to agree to an additional €4.4bn in gross and €3.6bn in net expenditure.

The overspend includes €852m for education to cover Covid supports, the public sector pay deal, as well as cost-of-living measures such as enhanced free school transport.

There is €722m for the Department of Social Protection for once-off cost-of-living measures, and the Ukrainian humanitarian effort. The Christmas bonus given to social welfare recipients is also included in the supplementary estimates.

The Department of Health got €1.4 billion to meet pandemic costs such as vaccinations, and the public sector pay deal.

Labour TD Ged Nash said the overall figures are broadly in line with the spending ceiling of €90.4bn announced in September’s budget but he said the additional spending must be "carefully interrogated to ensure that there is no creative accounting going on". 

“Absolute clarity is required and should be demanded in terms of this virtually unprecedented set of supplementary estimates," he told the Irish Examiner. 

Much of the additional monies referred to in the various supplementary estimates for this year can be accounted for by Covid, cost-of-living related measures and the agreed public sector pay deal, a portion of which has been backdated to February of this year. However, no minister should be given a free-pass.” 

Mr Nash said given the unprecedented amount of money in question, ministers must all be held to full account for the resources they have requested and in terms of how that money is to be spent effectively. 

Earlier this month, Education Minister Norma Foley told Cabinet colleagues her department required an extra €314m to cover the impact of the war in Ukraine on schools and the need for substitute teachers. 

School transport also cost €17m more than anticipated due in part to increased costs to cater for additional pupils from Ukraine and contributions paid to bus contractors to offset increased fuel costs.

The cost of building new schools and repairing or extending others has also jumped, and the department’s basic costs, based on tender outcomes, increased by 21% in the year to June 2022.