A look at the effect of the Estimates on the departments of education, justice, environment, transport, health and social & family affairs.
Education
Minister: Noel Dempsey
Mr Dempsey has emerged as one of the winners from the Estimates. Overall spending is up 12 per cent, and while much of this is required to pay for benchmarking and the Redress Board, he still has money left in the kitty to deal with some running sores.
Critically, he has found an extra €25 million for primary school buildings - not much in the context of a €6 billion education budget, but possibly enough to make the INTO think twice about strike action. To pay for primary school buildings, second-level schools are taking a hit. Their building fund increases only marginally. This reflects how Mr Dempsey is mindful of the powerful INTO - and how he can afford to give more stick to a weakened ASTI.
At third level, the return of research funding, announced last week, is a substantial coup. But the universities and institutes of technology will have to postpone most non-research building activities and make do with much less for day-to-day costs.
Seán Flynn
Transport
Minister: Séamus Brennan
At first glance the Government's commitment to maintain investment in infrastructure seems to have kept Mr Brennan afloat in yesterday's Estimates.
But the devil is in the stealth taxes, and CIÉ has been told to go out and borrow €100 million on its own balance sheet.
Similarly, a figure of €150 million has been included, for the first time, as a public- private partnership contribution in the national roads programme.
Also off the books is the Dublin Metro. The selection of the first leg of the route, from Dublin city centre to the airport, is finalised. The Cabinet will decide on it when the Minister knows whether the "hire-purchase" method can be kept off the Government's books until the State starts to pay over a 30-year period.
The one cut the Minister said he didn't mind was the drop from €3.5 million to €1.6 million in the provision for consultancy services. The Government should be able to make its own decisions, he said.
Tim O'Brien
Environment
Minister: Martin Cullen
Mr Cullen's biggest success was finding an extra €38 million for the local authorities to help defray rising pay costs as a result of benchmarking and Sustaining Progress.
But Fine Gael maintained yesterday that €14 million of the money had been filched from motor tax receipts, while €11 million was left over from last year and a further €11 million is being borrowed.
Even though it is less than they need, it is more than the zero sum that was anticipated throughout the local government system, where officials feared they would be left "high and dry".
It will now be up to them to bridge the funding gap of €42 million through revenue "buoyancy" or, more likely, raising commercial rates, development levies and other local charges.
Asked about his battles with the Department of Finance, Mr Cullen said yesterday he was determined "not to see my Department suffer substantial cuts" in any area.
Frank McDonald
Justice
Minister: Michael McDowell
More money for policing and less for crime prevention sums up the priorities of the Minister for Justice as revealed in the Estimates.
There is no disputing that an increase of 9.5 per cent in expenditure on the Garda Síochána is substantial, especially when this accounts for almost 60 per cent of the total Justice budget.
The increase in overtime of 13.3 per cent allows for more policing without employing more gardaí. The lower allocation for prison officers also shows he expects to win his argument on overtime costs with the POA.
However, the Probation and Welfare Service and crime prevention measures see real cuts in their budgets, while various anti-discrimination organisations have seen significant cuts.
The allocation for the anti-racism awareness campaign is being cut by 76 per cent.
This follows a cut of 63 per cent last year.
Carol Coulter
Health
Minister: Micheál Martin
Mr Martin managed to get the single biggest increase in funding of all Departments this year. He got an extra €700 million, bringing his budget for the year to €10.05 billion.
Given his run-ins with the Finance Minister over health service spending during the year, when he accused Mr McCreevy of failing to see the bigger picture, he has done better than might have been expected in the current financial climate.
He said yesterday he "couldn't complain" about his allocation. But he is bound to feel somewhat disappointed. He admitted his budget would not allow him to do everything he would like next year. This will include not being able to extend medical card eligibility. "We will be doing more in some areas and less in others," he said.
Asked if the funding would prevent further bed closures next year, he said: "Well our priority will be to avoid that," adding: "I'm not giving any guarantees in relation to anything."
Eithne Donnellan
Family
Minister: Mary Coughlan
Ms Coughlan seemed pleased she had secured an increase in her Department's budget of €200 million, bringing it to €10.65 billion. However, this represents an increase of only 2.5 per cent on last year, compared with an average increase of 5 per cent across all Departments. The Minister stressed, however, her Department would announce further increases in welfare payments in next month's Budget.
While the Estimates detail spending increases - for example,€ 70 million on Child Benefit and €40 million on the Disability Allowance - there are cuts totalling €55.8 million.
Among the most worrying to agencies working with the least well-off is the discontinuation of the transitional half-rate payment of the Lone Parent Allowance to lone parents if they get a job and earn more than €293 per week.
Kitty Holland