Written answers

Tuesday, 11 July 2017

Department of Social Protection

Departmental Expenditure

Photo of Denise MitchellDenise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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740. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the unallocated spend within her Department for 2017; the expenditure allocated to programmes in 2017 which are due to cease in 2017; the funds that will become available within her Department's expenditure profile in 2018 due to changes in demand for services or changes to costs within her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32220/17]

Photo of John BradyJohn Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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741. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the unallocated spend within her Department for 2017; the expenditure allocated to programmes in 2017 which are due to cease in 2017; the funds that will become available within her Department's expenditure profile in 2018 due to changes in demand for goods and services and or changes to costs within her Department and so on; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32239/17]

Photo of Regina DohertyRegina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 740 and 741 together.

The 2017 Revised Estimates Volume provides for a total of €19.854 billion for expenditure on the schemes, services and administration of the Department of Social Protection. This entire sum is allocated by sub-head and there is no unallocated amount. The 2017 allocations by sub-head are the amounts which were estimated late last year to be those required for this year. It should be noted, however, that most of the schemes operated by my Department are demand driven and, as a result, the final out-turn is dependent on a wide range of factors including developments in the wider economy and the labour market, in particular.

The Budget Day estimates published last October provide for expenditure of €19. 936 billion in 2018. The Department is currently preparing its existing level of service requirement for 2018. This will take into account existing and anticipated trends in recipient numbers, average payment values, the impact of carryover costs from the Budget 2017 measures, the number of pay-days (by scheme) in 2018, increases or decreases in administration costs as well as projected demographic and labour market impacts. Accordingly, it should be noted that expenditure on any given scheme can rise or fall in any given year because of these factors (and that each individual factor can have either a negative or positive impact on expenditure).

Given the scale of overall expenditure and the wide range of schemes operated this is a complex and time consuming task and it is too early to predict at this stage what the actual requirement for 2018 will be. The process underway will feed into the Estimates and Budgetary process later this year.

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