Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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167. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Question No. 208 of 17 November 2015, if he will list the number of other calls on the central fund referred to in the reply. [41634/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Non-voted expenditure is sometimes referred to as central fund expenditure and includes such items as debt servicing costs, EU budget contributions, Judges' pay, the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission and the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council.  Non-voted means that the Dáil has already agreed that the expenditure can be made without being voted annually in the Estimates process.  Further detail on non-voted expenditure is included as part of the notes to the Exchequer Statement, which is published on the second working day of each month.

In my answer to Parliamentary Question Number 208 of 17 November 2015, 'other calls on the central fund' referred to line item 7, Central Fund expenditure increases (non-voted) in table A9 on page C.51 of the Budget 2016 book. The Deputy should note that it is the annual change in Central Fund expenditure over the previous year's expenditure that impacts the estimates of fiscal space.

The table below shows the composition of the main areas of the year-on-year changes in the central fund expenditure consistent with Table A9 of Budget 2016:

Source: Department of Finance

Note: Rounding may affect totals

Please note that the capital contributions to Irish Water are based on the current Irish Water Business Plan. Interest expenditure is excluded from the table as it is excluded from the Expenditure Benchmark calculation. The Deputy should also be aware that there is a range of other issuances from the Central Fund that do not count as general government expenditure because they are classified as financial transactions e.g. Loans or equity investments.