Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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291. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the fiscal space projected to be available in Budget 2025 for new current and capital spending. [35452/25]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Budget 2025, introduced in October 2024, announced investment of €105.4 billion to deliver continued improvements in our infrastructure and enhance our existing public services to build for a stronger future.

This represented an overall increase of almost €7 billion in voted expenditure over the 2024 starting position set out in the 2024 Summer Economic Statement, with a current expenditure increase to €90.5 billion and capital expenditure increasing to €14.9 billion. Budget 2025 builds on the progress of previous budgets by providing for sustainable investment in public services and infrastructure.

Since the beginning of this year, additional capital investment has been agreed by Government, with the Government Expenditure Ceiling revised upward in June to €106.4 billion to provide for €925 million of additional capital investment in Housing (€715m) and Education (€210m).

The combination of current and capital expenditure uplifts in 2025 will:

• Provide supports and services which anticipate and meet the needs of a growing and changing population;
• Provide record levels of investment in the NDP, including the additional €750 million from windfall receipts;
• Accommodate many new measures in front line Departments such as Social Protection, Education, Justice and Children; including new measures funded from the National Training Fund,
• Continue to respond to external challenges like our humanitarian response to the Ukraine war, demands on our international protection accommodation services and legacy impacts on the health sector from the pandemic.