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

I did not make any comment yesterday that could be interpreted as saying these ceilings are a thing of the past, as Deputy Cowen knows. Nonetheless, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council expressed views on the implementation of expenditure ceilings. In the next few weeks, our expenditure report of 2019 will set out the revised baseline for current expenditure to 2021, taking account of pre-commitments relating to demographic pressures mentioned earlier, public service pay agreements and the estimated carry-over impact of certain budget measures. The ceilings also contain an amount of unallocated resources in 2020 and 2021, based on the fiscal projections at budget time last year. This will allow choices to be made for next year and the years thereafter. The approach currently adopted in the management of expenditure ceilings is consistent with our efforts to manage public expenditure. In recent years, growth in current expenditure has averaged approximately 4%, whereas the figure a decade ago was 11%

See this speech in context