Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The primary purpose of this year's comprehensive review of expenditure, which involved every Department, was to provide an evidence base for Government decisions on ministerial expenditure ceilings for current expenditure for the next three years. These ceilings will be finalised in the coming days and announced as part of the budget next Tuesday. They will also be presented, in detail, in the comprehensive expenditure report 2015 to 2017, which will be published on budget day also.

As was the case with the previous comprehensive expenditure review, which was carried out in 2011 and which informed budget decisions for the following three years, this year's process has provided the Government with a basis for making decisions on how best to realign spending with the priorities set out in the programme for Government and to meet overall fiscal objectives for the next several years.

In addition to the analysis carried out by each Department, submissions were invited as part of a public consultation. More than 60 proposals from individuals and representative organisations were received and considered as part of the review. The final step in the process is for the Government to decide on its priorities for the period ahead. When these decisions are made and announced next Tuesday, there will be plenty of opportunity through the various Oireachtas sectoral committees to discuss and examine them in detail.

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