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

In addition to a €4.4 billion package of temporary supports to be provided this year, budget 2023 provides for additional core expenditure of €5.8 billion. This significant commitment, which will bring overall core spending next year to €85.9 billion, is designed to support households and businesses in a challenging economic climate, and to invest in public services and critical public infrastructure in a fiscally responsible and sustainable manner.

In order to promote economic equity, equality of opportunity and social solidarity in the budget process the programme for Government commits to developing a complementary process of budget- and policy-proofing, analysing the distributional implications of expenditure and facilitating the targeting of measures to assist those most in need. In accordance with this commitment, my Department, along with the Department of Finance, undertakes distributional analysis of those measures captured in existing models as part of the budgetary process. This analysis provides detail on the expected impact of measures on households and socioeconomic groups and creates an evidence base which is central in informing the overall package.

It should be noted that it is necessarily an understatement of the true impact, as not all measures can be captured with existing models. The distributional analysis of the final package is published on budget day to improve overall transparency.

As part of budget 2023, my Department set out the findings of our distributional analysis on pages 29 to 31 of the expenditure report, published online on the budget 2023 website. The analysis, as provided, was based on the year of impact, with measures that are expected to benefit households in 2022 presented separately from those which will impact in 2023. The distributional impact of the core 2023 package in isolation was an integral part of the analysis carried out by my Department and I will arrange for this to be shared with the Deputy. In a further reply, I can outline some of the figures that strip out the cost-of-living measures in 2023 from the core budget 2023 impact. However, I wish to make the overall point that what matters is the benefits that are provided to people, not whether they are core or cost-of-leaving measures. People wanted to know what the budget meant for them.

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