Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In my statement on the expenditure Estimates on budget day, I announced that a spending review will take place in advance of budget 2018. The exact review will be determined over the coming months but will be informed by the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service paper, Spending Reviews in Ireland: Lessons for the Future. This was published within the expenditure report for 2017. Officials from my Department will engage with the Oireachtas Committee on Budgetary Oversight to discuss the arrangements for this engagement. These arrangements should build further on those put in place for engagement prior to this year's budget.

Since the onset of the crisis that we are looking to emerge from, spending reviews have played an important role in our efforts to restore expenditure policy and to put it on a more sustainable footing. What is crucial for me in this new approach is that we do not look at the increments or additional spending but at the totality of spending. We must look at all of the choices that we are making with all of the resources that are available to us.

See this speech in context