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Central Government

Central Government

Online ISSN: 2811-6186
CSO statistical release, , 11am

The central government sector (S.1311) includes all bodies established through political processes and for whose activities a Minister of government or other responsible person is accountable to the people through the Oireachtas. This responsibility extends to the presentation of detailed audited annual accounts to the Oireachtas. Central government includes legislative, judicial and executive bodies established in this manner. The sector does not include public corporations or enterprises engaged in the production of commercial services or goods. The main categories of central government bodies are:

  • Departments of State including any additional voted expenditure under the aegis of the Minister; 
  • Extra-Budgetary Funds for which separate accounts are maintained and which are directly administered by departments; and
  • Bodies which are not departments but which are funded almost entirely by the Exchequer. They are subject to controls and may be regarded as extensions of government departments.

See Background Notes for more information.

Figure 1.1 in the Public Sector chapter displays a breakdown of the Register by subsector.

A complete list of the Register in excel and csv formats are available here Register of Public Sector Bodies 2025 - Final Table 1.1 (XLS 61KB) and Register of Public Sector Bodies 2025 - Final Table 1.1 csv.

Departments of State, Vote Groups and Extra-Budgetary Funds

An annual survey of all central government departments is undertaken jointly by the CSO and the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation. This survey was issued to all central government departments in February 2026 to capture data for the reference year 2025.

This survey updated the Register for the April 2026 publication. The survey obtained information required to establish the statistical classification of all bodies under the aegis of these government departments. The updated information is set out in tables below. The next central government survey will take place in January 2027.

Departments, Votes, Extra-Budgetary Funds, Non-Commercial Agencies and Commercial Corporations are shown in the tables below. The tables below provide a breakdown for each central government department by ESA sub sector, type of funding for statistical classification purposes, all public bodies under their aegis by entity name. The tables also provide the vote number for all vote groups and lists the ultimate parent entity (if applicable, otherwise it will be left blank) where the entity is a subsidiary of a group.   

In total there are 612 bodies in central government. Figure 3.1 provides a breakdown per department of all Votes, Extra-Budgetary Funds, Non-Commercial Agencies and Commercial Corporations under the aegis of all central government departments.

DepartmentCommercial Non-Financial Corporation under the aegis of DepartmentExtra-Budgetary FundNon-Commercial Agency under the aegis of DepartmentVoteCommercial Financial Corporation under the aegis of DepartmentSocial Security Fund
Agriculture, Food and the Marine18213100
Children, Disability and Equality1033200
Climate, Energy and the Environment185210120
Culture, Communications and Sport4020100
Defence004200
Education and Youth0126100
Enterprise, Tourism and Employment1012100
Finance013144100
Foreign Affairs and Trade000200
Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science7118100
Health7249150
Housing, Local Government and Heritage3217310
Justice, Home Affairs and Migration0021600
Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation2121500
Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht045100
Social Protection004100
Transport2617140
the Taoiseach002600
DepartmentCommercial Non-Financial Corporation under the aegis of DepartmentExtra-Budgetary FundNon-Commercial Agency under the aegis of DepartmentVoteCommercial Financial Corporation under the aegis of DepartmentSocial Security Fund
Agriculture, Food and the Marine18213100
Children, Disability and Equality1033200
Climate, Energy and the Environment185210120
Culture, Communications and Sport4020100
Defence004200
Education and Youth0126100
Enterprise, Tourism and Employment1012100
Finance013144100
Foreign Affairs and Trade000200
Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science8117100
Health7249150
Housing, Local Government and Heritage3217310
Justice, Home Affairs and Migration0021600
Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation2121500
Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht045100
Social Protection014100
Transport2617140
the Taoiseach002600
DepartmentCommercial Non-Financial Corporation under the aegis of DepartmentExtra-Budgetary FundNon-Commercial Agency under the aegis of DepartmentVoteCommercial Financial Corporation under the aegis of DepartmentSocial Security Fund
Agriculture, Food and the Marine18213100
Children, Disability and Equality1033200
Climate, Energy and the Environment185210120
Culture, Communications and Sport4020100
Defence004200
Education and Youth0126100
Enterprise, Tourism and Employment1012100
Finance013144100
Foreign Affairs and Trade000200
Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science8117100
Health7249150
Housing, Local Government and Heritage3217310
Justice, Home Affairs and Migration0021600
Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation2121502
Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht045100
Social Protection014100
Transport2617140
the Taoiseach002600
DepartmentCommercial Non-Financial Corporation under the aegis of DepartmentExtra-Budgetary FundNon-Commercial Agency under the aegis of DepartmentVoteCommercial Financial Corporation under the aegis of DepartmentSocial Security Fund
Agriculture, Food and the Marine18213100
Children, Disability and Equality1035200
Climate, Energy and the Environment185210120
Culture, Communications and Sport5020100
Defence004200
Education and Youth0125100
Enterprise, Tourism and Employment1012100
Finance013144100
Foreign Affairs and Trade000200
Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science8117100
Health7249150
Housing, Local Government and Heritage3217310
Justice, Home Affairs and Migration0021600
Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation2121502
Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht044100
Social Protection014100
Transport2617140
the Taoiseach002600
Table 3.1 Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine

Table 3.2 Department of Children, Disability and Equality

Table 3.3 Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment

Table 3.4 Department of Culture, Communications and Sport

Table 3.5 Department of Defence

Table 3.6 Department of Education and Youth

Table 3.7 Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment

Table 3.8 Department of Finance

Table 3.9 Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Table 3.10 Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science

Table 3.11 Department of Health

Table 3.12 Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage

Table 3.13 Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration

Table 3.14 Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation

Table 3.15 Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht

Table 3.16 Department of Social Protection

Table 3.17 Department of the Taoiseach

Table 3.18 Department of Transport

Organisations providing health and personal social services

The CSO has classified a number of organisations providing health and personal social services, as services provided and funded on behalf of government. This classification review is available on the CSO website here –  Classification of Bodies Providing Health and Personal Social Services - CSO - Central Statistics Office. 

The review identified the Health Service Executive (HSE) as having formal arrangements with a number of Section 38 and 39 Organisations that provide health and personal social services under Section 39 of the Health Act, 2004. These organisations receive high levels of funding from government with stringent conditions and most of their services are provided on behalf of government. The formal arrangement includes the provision of funding from the HSE to the providers of these services.   The funding for these services was transferred from the Department of Health (Vote 38) to the Department of Children, Disability and Equality (Vote 40). The funding primarily relates to the HSE for the costs of providing specialist community-based Disability Services, with the exception for one entity in the list. In this case, most of the funding comes from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. See Background Notes for further information.

Table 3.19 sets out organisations that provide health and personal services on behalf of government and are classified in the central government sector. 

Table 3.19 Organisations providing health and personal social services