Introduction

This section of the website provides a detailed description of public expenditure in Ireland. Public spending has been categorized into ten distinct areas according to the Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG) typology that has been developed by the United Nations to enable international comparisons of public spending. For example, health, education and defence are categorized as three distinct areas of spending and each individual item of spending is categorized within exactly one of these ten functional areas. Spending on the armed forces would fall into the category of defence spending, spending on universities would fall into the category of education spending, and so forth.

Use the navigation tool (above) to begin. Simply click on the coloured circle beside the area of public spending that you are interested in. Please note that the graphics may take a few seconds to load.