43. Deputy Cathy Bennett asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation if he will outline any deadline provided to Government departments regarding proposals to cut planned spending; and the timeframe in which it is intended to implement such cuts. [51487/26]

The Government agreed a Medium Term Fiscal Structural Plan (MTFP) in December last year. This set out fixed expenditure ceilings for the period to 2030. It provides for significant uplifts in expenditure over the coming years, with gross voted spending to reach €147.3 billion in 2030. As set out in the MTFP the ceiling for 2027 will increase to €125.5 billion. This is an uplift of €7 billion over the 2026 expenditure ceiling of €118.5 billion. Delivery of the MTFP over the medium-term horizon will require enhanced expenditure control, avoidance of in-year decisions with carryover costs for subsequent years and robust oversight mechanisms.

In April, Government agreed that additional funding of €646 million will be provided to the Department of Education and Youth in 2026. To accommodate this additional funding for Education and Youth, Government agreed to reprioritise funding from other Votes to deliver on the 2027 ceiling as planned. Other Departments have been asked to deliver a levy through the implementation of efficiencies and reforms which will total €446 million from 2027. This should be considered through the lens of an overall uplift of €7 billion for expenditure in 2027. It will not impact the 2026 allocations.

The delivery of reforms and efficiencies supports adherence to the fixed expenditure ceilings set out in the MTFP. It reflects the need to moderate the rate of expenditure growth across other Departments to facilitate Government’s decision to reprioritise and provide additional investment to the Education sector within the agreed overall fiscal framework out to 2030. The scale of the efficiencies to be found ranges from 0.02 per cent to 1.4 per cent on the 2026 current expenditure funding across all other Vote Groups.

The distribution of the levy across Departments has been designed to protect certain areas including:

• Social Protection Vote Group non-pay allocation;

• Department of Health pay allocation;

• Specialist Disability Services subhead in the Department of Children, Disability and Equality;

• Justice, Home Affairs and Migration Group pay;

• Housing, Local Government and Heritage Group non-pay and

• Pension funding across Votes.

It is a matter for each Department to determine how the levy will be applied across the Vote Group and identify the efficiencies and reforms required to ensure this and the subheads these will relate to. My Department wrote to Secretaries General of other Departments, following the Government decision, informing them of the need to identify efficiencies and reforms. Efficiency and reform proposals from Departments have been requested by 17th July and these will form a key element of the Estimates engagement for Budget 2027.