WHERE'S MY MONEY? · SECTOR 08 OF 08
Additional departments spending in Ireland
Agriculture, enterprise, defence, higher education and more. Compare the 2026 estimate with the published Budget 2027 allocation, and see what this sector covers.
Expenditure estimates — not confirmed final outturn. Source checked 2026-11-13.
01 / FIGURES IN CONTEXT
Additional departments: spending over time
Additional Departments is a collection of multiple public bodies and functions, not one service. It includes activities such as agriculture, enterprise, defence, culture and further and higher education.
Spending estimate by year (billion euro)
| Year | Amount | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | €25.1bn | 2026 estimate |
| 2027 | €26.0bn | 2027 Budget estimate |
Changes between estimates may reflect inflation, new allocations and/or transfers of departmental functions. They should not be presented automatically as a like-for-like increase in services.
02 / FOLLOW THE CATEGORY
What does this sector include?
Departmental functions change over time. Housing is presented as a separate sector from 2020, and further and higher education moved away from the schools department in 2020.
Agriculture and fisheries
Agriculture and marine programmes can support farming, fisheries, food systems and sector regulation.
Further and higher education
Further and higher education is managed through different departmental structures from primary and post-primary schools.
Defence
Defence includes personnel, equipment and military operations rather than one single procurement budget.
Climate and environment
Climate and environmental programmes can span departments and may overlap topical descriptions without double-counting expenditure.
Enterprise and tourism
Enterprise and tourism activity can include business development, promotion and associated public agencies.
Arts, culture and sport
Culture and sport spending may support organisations, facilities, heritage and public programmes.
Foreign affairs and overseas development
Foreign affairs includes diplomacy and international development functions with different objectives.
Public administration
Public administration services and regulators underpin many functions but do not form one homogeneous programme.
Why this distinction matters
The sector's size should not be attributed to any one included department. The official source needs to be mapped at department and programme level before assigning amounts to its constituent themes.
Amounts for individual programmes would need to reconcile to the department and sector totals before appearing in these charts. We do not divide the sector figure evenly among the topics above.
03 / IDENTIFIED PROGRAMME ALLOCATIONS
Explore 8 published funding amounts in additional departments.
These are official 2026 estimates, allocations and selected measures. Some are parts of others, or cover a different reporting boundary. Do not add the bars together or subtract them from the sector total.
Bar lengths indicate the relative size of the amounts in this selected set only. They do not represent a complete or mutually exclusive spending breakdown. Each linked programme page identifies the source, status and any overlap.
Browse all 49 verified allocations →DEPARTMENTAL ACCOUNTING · 2026
What were the 2026 net supply grants?
For this sector, the following Dáil Vote authorisations are listed separately from the gross €25.1bn sector estimate. Net grants are not extra money to add to the figure above, and a Vote may span several public services.
Exact net voted supply grants from 25 March 2026 are a different accounting basis from gross spending and are not a reconciled sector subhead split.
03 / YOUR PERSONAL CONTEXT
A proportional tax receipt, not a traced payment.
If you paid a particular amount in PAYE, USC and employee PRSI, what would additional departments represent if that money were distributed using the national 2026 spending mix?
This multiplies the figure you enter by 18.9%. Public finances pool revenues; this is not a payment receipt or the monetary value of services you personally receive.
Calculate my full Irish tax receipt →04 / COMMON QUESTIONS
Understanding additional departments spending.
Is this a miscellaneous or unexplained spending fund?
No. It is a grouping of identifiable departments and functions, although the headline combines them for presentation.
Why is higher education not simply in Education?
The departments were reorganised in 2020, and the headline categories reflect those accounting boundaries.
Can the themes be assigned euro values?
Only using validated departmental or programme-level source figures. We do not divide the broad total arbitrarily.
Related Compound resources
05 / CONTINUE EXPLORING
Explore the rest of the public budget.
Every sector links back to the complete directory and to related categories, so you can follow the spending picture without leaving Compound.
Sources and limitations
All figures on this page come from the published government 2026 Additional departments sector estimate and Budget 2027 expenditure summary. Official methodology describes voted and non-voted totals, provisional outturns and historical classification changes.
Figures are rounded to €0.1bn. Departmental accounting categories are not always the same as everyday descriptions of a service. No supplier or programme allocation is inferred from this headline figure.