Making Sense of The National Recovery Plan 2010-2014

The Irish Government estimated that total tax revenue for 2010 would be €31.05 billion. Government expenditure (capital and current) for 2010 was forecast to be €61.17 billion, a 3% reduction over 2009.

Tax revenue for 2003 was €32.1 billion and total voted Government expenditure that year was €30.74 billion. The exchequer deficit that year was €978,020 million. The National Debt in 2003 was €37.61 billion.

Government expenditure in 2003 and 2010 compares as follows:

	2003	2010	Spending Change
Agriculture, Fisheries & Food	829,787	1,758,806	+929,019
Communications, Energy & Natural Resources	299,015	517,922	+218,907
Community, Equality & Gaeltacht Affairs	257,810	419,195	+161,385
Defence	839,043	964,377	+125,334
Education & Skills	5,680,888	8,883,040	+3,202,152
Enterprise, Trade & Innovation	1,025,054	2,011,370	+986,316
Environment, Heritage & Local Government	2,307,765	2,195,483	-112,282
Finance	1,122,398	1,453,795	+331,397
Foreign Affairs	543,947	754,217	+210,270
Health & Children	7,954,540	15,324,452	+7,369,912
Justice & Law Reform	1,718,131	2,487,484	+769,353
Social Protection	5,611,921	20,959,799	+15,347,878
Taoiseach	127,792	185,819	+58,027
Tourism, Culture & Sport	393,306	504,980	111,674
Transport	2,030,225	2,758,046	+727,821
(MILLIONS of  EURO)	€30,741,622	€61,178,785	€30,437,163

The National Debt is currently €89.5 billion. The 2010 exchequer deficit to October 2010 is €14.37 billion.

The National Recovery Plan 2011 – 2014 provides for overall savings of 11.43% over 2010 expenditure with the greater burden, in percentage terms, falling on Foreign Affairs, Taoiseach, Justice, & Law Reform, Environment, Heritage & Local Government, Full details of the proposed cuts are as follows :

€ Million % Change from 2010 Agriculture, Fisheries & Food 221,000 -12.57% Comms, Energy & Natural Resources 20,000 -3.86% Community, Equality & Gaeltacht Affairs 35,000 -8.35% Defence 106,000 -10.99% Education & Skills 690,000 -7.77% Enterprise, Trade & Innovation 47,000 -2.34% Environment, Heritage & Local Gov 311,000 -14.17% Finance 85,000 -5.85% Foreign Affairs 187,000 -24.79% Health & Children 1,445,000 -9.43% Justice & Law Reform 370,000 -14.87% Social Protection 2,825,000 -13.48% Taoiseach 35,000 -18.84% Tourism, Culture, Sport 76,000 -15.05% Transport 139,000 -5.04% Other Measure 400,000   €6,992,000