Departmental Budgets
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-28
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Jack Chambers (FF), Dublin West

I am happy to respond to the question on education that was raised at the budgetary oversight committee too. First, it is being done in the context of the Estimates process for budget 2027. Transport is at 1.4%. Housing is at 0.1% and justice is at 0.7%. We have specifically provided a carve-out for housing for obvious reasons and similarly for justice pay so we do not affect front-line areas. This is obviously in the context of a growing budget. I see this differently, through the lens of driving efficiencies, advancing reforms and enhancing productivity across these areas of public expenditure. I think we can improve outputs in the context of an efficiency and expenditure levy. New priorities emerge in the context of expenditure and that is why we were right to provide that additional funding to the Department of education. That is within a new and agreed fiscal framework. In the context of budget 2027 we will engage with the Departments through the Estimates process. However, each of them has an objective now to drive those efficiencies across these respective areas.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-28/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-28