Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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271. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the reason for the difference in accounting treatment between the expenditure estimates outlined in the Stability Programme Update (details supplied) for 2022. [24838/22]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Budget 2022 set out gross voted expenditure of €87,593 million for 2022. This comprises €80.1 billion of core expenditure along with €7.5 billion in non-core funding to respond to Covid-19 and Brexit. The Revised Estimates in December allocated just under €83 billion of this funding at Departmental level, with €4.6 billion remaining held in reserve in respect of Covid-19 contingency funding, Brexit Adjustment Reserve funding and certain specified core funding areas to be allocated during 2022.

The €87.6 billion in Table 9 of the Stability Programme Update (SPU) refers to this total €87.6 billion gross voted expenditure provision for 2022. This €87.6 billion is also reflected in Table 11 of the SPU, split out into the gross voted current and gross voted capital expenditure lines, however Table 11 also includes €15.6 billion of non-voted expenditure to show overall gross Exchequer spending of €103.16 billion.

General Government Expenditure for 2022 of an estimated €107.7 billion is a broader measure than the Exchequer expenditure figure, and encompasses both central and local government, non commercial State-owned bodies, extra budgetary funds and other bodies classified into the General Government sector, as listed in the ‘Register of Public Sector Bodies' available on the CSO website.

The Where Your Money Goes website shows gross voted and non-voted Government expenditure. It is updated periodically throughout the year, with the ‘About’ section of the website showing what stage of the Estimates process the data is based on. The €97.3 billion of gross expenditure shown on the website comprises the gross voted expenditure allocated in Estimates brought before the Dáil to date in 2022 of €83.2 billion and the estimate of gross non-voted expenditure from the time of Budget 2022 in October 2021 of €13.9 billion. It does not include the remaining funding held in reserve of €4.4 billion as this has not yet been allocated at Departmental level through Dáil votes. The €23.5 billion Social Protection Vote Group figure displayed on Where Your Money Goes contains, at Vote Group level, a double count of the €0.16 billion funding transfer between the Social Insurance Fund and the Department. This will be updated to reflect the €23.3 billion Social Protection Vote Group Estimate figure. This discrepancy, the remaining reserve funding and the updated gross non-voted expenditure figure published in the SPU are the differences between the €90.7 billion and the SPU €103.2 billion Table 11 figure.