Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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182. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he envisages changes to, and the details of previous examples of adjustments made to European Union co-funded payments, with regard to the domestic medium-term expenditure framework, which permits revisions to ceilings, where adjustments are related to spending on cyclically related unemployment spending or European Union co-funded payments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16439/16]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, under the preventive arm of the Stability and Growth Pact, Ireland's fiscal policy is set in accordance with reaching the Medium Term Objective (MTO). Compliance with this requirement is assessed in two ways. Firstly, until the MTO is reached, a minimum annual improvement in the structural balance greater than 0.5 per cent of GDP is required. The second pillar for the assessment is compliance with the Expenditure Benchmark.

The expenditure aggregate used in the Expenditure Benchmark is calculated as general government expenditure excluding debt interest, cyclical unemployment benefit spending and certain spending on EU co-funded programmes. A smoothing adjustment is also applied in relation to expenditure on capital formation. The estimates of fiscal space set out in Table A.8 of the Budget 2016 book, published by the Department of Finance in October last year, are based on application of the Expenditure Benchmark and consequently factor in these adjustments to calculate the Expenditure Benchmark expenditure aggregate.

As regards revisions to the expenditure ceilings, as set out in the Expenditure Report 2016, the 2016 ceiling for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine was revised. This upwards revision took account of an increased allocation for expenditure on the EU co-funded Rural Development Programme.