Each year, the budget sets out the Government’s plans for its income and expenditure for the next twelve months, the changes it will make to taxes and spending. The budget is followed by Bills in the Dáil and Seanad which have to be passed by the Oireachtas to make these changes law.
Extra-Budgetary Funds (EBFs) are units of government controlled by the Central Government but which are not usually included in this annual budget. That is, the budget does not normally include their revenue in income estimates, or their costs in the expenditure estimates announced in the budget statement. Decisions about how the fund is spent are separate from the main budget process.
In many cases EBFs have a legal status that is independent of government departments but they do not generally have independent decision-making powers. A government department, or in some cases the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), manages the EBFs. They often have separate banking and institutional arrangements that are not included in the annual budget law. In National Accounts, their income, expenditure, assets and liabilities are included in the Government total.
A full list of EBFs is set out in the Register of Public Sector Bodies.
In many cases EBFs have been set up to deal with a particular issue. For example, the Climate Action Fund is an Extra-Budgetary Fund to support projects which address climate change. The Residential Institutions Redress Board was set up to make financial awards to people who were abused in residential institutions. The Risk Equalisation Fund manages the redistribution of funds among health insurers to keep premiums more level among policy holders.
