Departmental Budgets

336. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation to provide respectively the Departmental gross voted capital allocations for 2026 following the Revised Estimates; the cause of the divergence from the allocations in the revised NDP or in Budget 2026; and if he will provide the proposed 2027 gross voted allocations, in tabular form. [68164/26]

Exchequer Returns

118. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance to provide details of the impact assessments undertaken on Exchequer revenues in relation to the proposed savings and investment account. [68940/26]

Driver Test

274. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Transport to confirm through the Road Safety Authority the number of driving tests that have taken place to date at the recently opened Drogheda driving test centre; the pass rate; and his plans to expand the number of testers at the centre. [68423/26]

Childcare Services

424. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of registered childminders in their own home, by county, in each of the years 2023 to 2025 and to date in 2026. [67905/26]

Tax Yield

289. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the projected cost of reducing the VAT rate on home heating oil to 9%, from the current 13.5% rate for 2027; and the additional projected cost of introducing it from 6 October 2026. [67877/26]

Tax Reliefs

267. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the number of individual tax units that have benefitted from the childcare services relief scheme in each year since its introduction; and the annual cost for each of these years. [67904/26]

34th Dáil debate — 2026-10-01

Deputy Ged Nash We will have overspends in health this year. We have had overspends in education this year, and we will have overspends in other Departments as well. The principal reason for the overspends in health and some other key spending Departments is that this Government and its immediate predecessor decided to engage in fictional, fraudulent budgeting. I will give an example. Last year, the Minister for education made it very clear to the Department of public expenditure that she was

34th Dáil debate — 2026-10-01

Deputy Ged Nash It does, though.

34th Dáil debate — 2026-10-01

Deputy Ged Nash We are days away from the announcement of budget 2027 and it looks like everything will be leaked in advance, or will the Tánaiste be able to keep a few morsels in his back pocket for budget day? Later today, the Labour Party will publish its alternative budget. We will set out our plans for a future we can all afford. To take on the cost-of-living crisis, our plan is unapologetically and relentlessly focused on three key issues: energy, incomes and child poverty. By taxing weal