Additional €8.3bn funding for use in Budget 2025

The Government is to make €8.3 billion in additional funding available for use in Budget 2025, its last before the next general election.

€1.4bn of that money is to be spent on funding tax cuts and €6.9bn is to be used for increased expenditure.

It means that total spending will rise by 6.9% in 2025, once again breaching the Government's own National Spending Rule, which is supposed to limit overall annual spending increases to 5%.

The Government has also approved another €1.5bn in funding for the health service this year.

It said this money is needed because of the need for better quality healthcare, the complexity of providing health services and the legacy impact of a post-pandemic and heightened inflationary environment.

The Government has said this decision was made in order to accommodate higher capital spending and to provide additional public services against the backdrop of a larger than assumed population.