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

From my extensive experience of this issue in recent years, it is one that will increase next year and beyond. Understandably, every Government agency only considers expenditure needs in its own area of responsibility. When all of that is added together, though, it represents a figure the Exchequer is not capable of meeting. If we could meet it, there would be a separate issue regarding the ability of our economy to translate those projects into reality on the ground because of the need to have workers available to do the work and projects delivered in a way that does not contribute to prices rising even further within our economy.

I have noticed a trend in recent years. There are a number of Departments whose demands, when combined at budget time, usually exceed by multiples all of the money that is available to the Government on budget day. I am beginning to notice that this is even more the case for Government agencies. If left to their own devices, each of them would make a pitch for nearly all of the additional resources that are available to the Government. We must monitor that and manage the balance carefully next year.

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