Current Spending
Day-to-day spending will rise by 10.9 per cent to £14,841 million. Increased pay costs account for £776 million of the £1,459 million increase. The Exchequer pay and pensions bill will rise by 11.3 per cent to £7,615 million. New staff will be hired to improve the delivery of services in such key areas as health, asylum services and prisons.
Capital Spending
Spending on infrastructure and other capital items will rise by £740 million to £3,905 million. This represents a 23 per cent increase on the current year. The bulk of the increased spending - 65 per cent - will be by the Department of the Environment and Local Government on housing and road improvements.
Health & Children
Spending on health and children will rise by £639 million to about £5 billion. This is almost double the 1999 figure and £358 million of the additional funds will go on pay. Day-to-day spending will increase by £586 million to £4.7 billion while capital spending will rise by £53 million to £285 million.
Projects include substantial investments at a number of Dublin hospitals such as St Vincent's, the Mater and Temple Street Children's Hospital. An additional 3,000 staff will be hired in hospitals, mental health, childcare and physical and intellectual disability services, at a cost of £142 million.
Education and Science
Increases in teachers' pay will gobble up £254 million of the £271 million increase in day-to-day spending on education and science. Total spending will be £3.1 billion. Additional teaching jobs will be created along with new posts for childcare assistants and psychologists. There is also £27 million in non-pay expenditure associated with childcare measures, school grants and third-level access. Capital spending will rise by £23 million to £430 million.
Social Welfare
The estimate for Social, Community and Family Affairs has been increased by a net £131 million to £2.9 billion. The small rise reflects the fall in the number of unemployed to record lows. The figure does not include any provision for increases in social welfare payments, which will be announced in the Budget.
Justice
Day-to-day spending on Justice, Equality and Family Affairs will rise by £119 million to £1.07 billion. This includes increased provisions for childcare and asylum services. Capital spending on new prisons, childcare and communications for the Garda will rise by £61 million.
Infrastructure
The Department of the Environment will get an extra £483 million to spend on infrastructure, including public housing and road improvements, bringing spending to £1.79 billion. Spending on the local authority and social housing programme will increase by £291 million to meet commitments under the National Development Plan. Spending on road improvements will be 31 per cent higher than in the current year, at £151 million. An additional £11 million will be spent on water and sewerage services.
Transport
There is an increase of £71 million in capital spending by the Department of Public Enterprise to £318 million. The money will be used for investment in public transport, including Luas light rail, bus and rail services and the rail safety programme. Increased provision is also being made for energy conservation measures and advanced telecommunications and e-commerce programmes.
Other spending
More than £63 million has been provided for Sports Campus Ireland, while an extra £95 million has been earmarked for day-to-day spending on Defence. Pay costs account for £35 million of the increase, with the remaining £60 million earmarked for equipment and an expected increase in the number of Army deafness cases that will be settled. There is also a £21 million increase in capital spending by Defence to refurbish barracks and related facilities.
The Overseas Development Assistance Programme (ODA) has been increased by £50 million to £260 million, or 0.35 per cent of Gross National Product. This is still some way off the UN target of 0.7 per cent of GNP but an improvement on last year's figure of 0.31 per cent.
Agriculture
The Irish Farmers' Association last night expressed concern that the £249 million provided for the Rural Environment Protection Scheme and the Early Retirement Schemes in the Estimates may not be adequate, writes Sean MacConnell, Agriculture Correspondent.
The Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, said that the money set aside for REPS and the early retirement scheme reflected their multi-annual nature and an increased number of participants.
Announcing details of the revised schemes last Friday, the Minister predicted a doubling of the number of retiring farmers to 20,000 over the next six years, and a doubling of the numbers involved in REPS to 70,000 participants.
As expected, the Estimates provided £175 million for head-age payments in 2001 - a 40 per cent increase on this year. This reflects the reduction in the EU percentage of input into the scheme for farmers in disadvantaged areas.
The Minister said that a significant provision of £57 million was also made for other measures in the National Development Plan, which would include on-farm investment, rural development and investment in human resources.
Also included is £6.7 million for a national beef assurance scheme based on cattle traceability. This has been made more urgent because of the looming BSE crisis in France.
Grant-in-aid for Teagasc, the agriculture and food development authority, was increased by 20 per cent to £67.5 million and for An Bord Bia, the Irish food board, to £13.3 million, a 31 per cent increase.
Commenting on the decline in the provision for the Irish Horseracing Authority (£12 million) and Bord na gCon (£4.5 million), Mr Walsh said these had to be seen in the context of new funding mechanisms.