Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In the current year, we provided for a reserve of almost €4 billion, €1.5 billion of which has now been spent or accounted for. That €4 billion was, in effect, earmarked for Covid-related expenditure. It is anticipated it will not all be needed for that, although some of it certainly will. We have said that the cost of looking after Ukrainian refugees who come here will also be met from that reserve. We have an overall Government expenditure ceiling of €87.6 billion. It is my expectation that expenditure in overall terms will be managed within that ceiling, which was agreed on budget day and brought forward in the Revised Estimates volume in December of last year.

The Deputy is correct to point to elevated debt levels. Our debt now stands at approximately €236 billion. We spent €30 billion in direct expenditure measures across 2020 and 2021 related to Covid and made an overall provision in the current year of approximately €7 billion. We are seeing Covid spending fall but core spending is increasing. As the Deputy knows, we now have a medium-term fiscal framework that anchors growth in core expenditure to the underlying trend growth rate in the economy, which is about 5%. That is built into our framework. Although there are always pressures, I am determined to ensure that we manage our public expenditure in a sustainable and responsible way. That involves being very careful with taxpayers' money.

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