Ms Georgina Hughes-Elders:

The Government expenditure ceiling is the sum of the gross ministerial expenditure ceilings which outline the gross expenditure, which is the sum of next expenditure and appropriations-in-aid of each ministerial Vote group plus any unallocated funding. Upon establishment, the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform was assigned responsibility through the Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Act 2011 to manage public expenditure within the overall envelope set by Government. The Minister for Finance has retained responsibility for the overall budgetary parameters. This means that the Minister for Finance retains responsibility for the overall Government expenditure ceilings, while the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform has responsibility for the allocations within that.

Ministerial and Government expenditure ceilings are set out and agreed by Government in the Revised Estimates memo, where the Minister for Finance requests the Government to agree the Government expenditure ceiling. Where additional allocations are required in excess of this ceiling, through further Revised Estimates or Supplementary Estimates, the Minister for Finance will request the agreement of Government to a new expenditure ceiling as required.