{"id":461460,"date":"2026-05-22T08:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T08:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/461460\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T08:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T08:42:10","slug":"department-of-justice-told-to-save-e39m-under-levy-proposed-by-jack-chambers-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/461460\/","title":{"rendered":"Department of Justice told to save \u20ac39m under levy proposed by Jack Chambers \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spending in the areas of justice and transport will be reduced as the impact of a new levy takes hold across Government. The cost-saving measure is being imposed to offset a \u20ac640 million overrun in the education sector.<\/p>\n

An initial breakdown of the savings being sought suggests the Department of Justice<\/a> has been asked to generate savings of close to \u20ac40 million next year. The money is to be clawed back under an initiative proposed by Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers<\/a>. It was approved by Cabinet earlier this month. <\/p>\n

The levy plan has generated a backlash among some Ministers and department staff, who believe they are being penalised for the failures of others to live within their budgets. <\/p>\n

Some areas of public spending, such as pensions, are being shielded from the new measures.<\/p>\n

The Government has not published an official table on the level of savings being sought from each department. However, it has confirmed the amount will range from 0.1 per cent to 1.4 per cent of estimated current expenditure allocations for 2027.<\/p>\n

Some details have emerged from a number of Ministers in response to parliamentary questions tabled by Labour Party<\/a> finance spokesman Ged Nash.<\/p>\n

Figures show the top-level levy of 1.4 per cent is being applied to the Department of Transport<\/a>. It is understood this equates to about \u20ac18 million the department would have to come up with in savings.<\/p>\n

The Department of Foreign Affairs is also being asked to make savings close to the maximum level of 1.4 per cent. It said, based on 2026 allocations, a decrease of 1.37 per cent overall was being sought, with the intention of applying the decrease to the 2027 budget allocation.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Government exceeds annual budget by average of \u20ac5.1bn since 2023Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In his answer to a parliamentary question, Minister for Transport Darragh O\u2019Brien, said: \u201cMy department has been advised of a levy of 1.4 per cent in 2027 on current expenditure, with the exception of pensions, as the distribution of the levy has been designed to protect pension funding across all votes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan said his department had been advised \u201ca levy of \u20ac39 million will apply to current expenditure in the Justice Vote Group in 2027\u201d. <\/p>\n

However, he said pay in the justice, home affairs and migration area was being protected in the application of the levy. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe levy of \u20ac39 million equates to 0.7 per cent of my vote group\u2019s current gross-expenditure allocation of \u20ac5.948 billion for 2026,\u201d said O\u2019Callaghan.<\/p>\n

Savings of \u20ac5 million are being sought in the Department of Housing, while the Department of Public Expenditure has been asked to come up with \u20ac10 million under the levy.<\/p>\n

Minister for Enterprise and Employment Peter Burke said: \u201cOn April 23rd, my department was informed by the Department of Public Expenditure that a levy of \u20ac8 million will apply to current expenditure in my department\u2019s vote group in 2027. This equates to just under 1.3 per cent of the overall current budget of \u20ac629 million as published in the 2026 revised estimate volume.”<\/p>\n

About half of all Ministers did not provide details of the level of savings being sought.<\/p>\n

Nash told The Irish Times the replies from Ministers were \u201cinconsistent and concerning\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey have simply refused to confirm, with some exceptions, the percentage budget adjustments contained in the correspondence received from the public expenditure Ministers,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are public documents and this is a matter of serious public interest. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn truth, the manner in which all of this has been handled represents a failure of accountability and a snub to the D\u00e1il. This is not an abstract issue, as it goes right to the heart of how we plan public spending and how our public services are funded and run. There are real-world implications here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spending in the areas of justice and transport will be reduced as the impact of a new levy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-461460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}