Social protection expenditure ate up almost a third of the government's general expenditure during 2015, new figures released today have shown.
The €1,147.7 million spent on social expenditure represented a shade above 30 per cent of all general government expenditure, and was €37.3 million more than the 2014 figure.
Despite the increase, spending on social protection was down as a percentage of total expenditure when compared to previous years.
Total government expenditure increased by €318.9 million over the previous year, reaching €3,814.7 million.
General public services (16.4 per cent), health (14.2 per cent), education (13.3 per cent) and economic affairs (12.4 per cent) were the next biggest drains of government expenditure.
Expenditure in all these sectors increased when compared to 2014, the National Statistics Office said. General public services costs were up by €41.5 million, which health expenditure was up by €56 million due to higher spending on hospital services, the NSO said. Education spending increased by €38.4 million and road infrastructure costs bumped economic affairs expenditure up by €41.2 million.
Conversely, the government spent just 0.9 per cent of expenditure on housing and community amenities and 2 per cent on defence.
The single biggest increase in government expenditure - €60.8 million - came from the environment protection division. The increase was due to a rise in waste management expenditure.
NSO figures show that the government spent less in 2015, proportional to its total expenditure, on general public services, education and social protection than it did in 2011.
On the other hand, expenditure was upped in relative terms in the economic affairs, health and environmental protection sectors.
In total, general government expenditure as a percentage of GDP decreased marginally to 41.2 per cent in 2015 from 41.5 per cent in 2014.
Similarly to the past 4 years, when considering general government data by function, a considerable share of government expenses was devoted to wages and salaries (29.3 per cent) and social benefits in cash or in kind (27 per cent), the NSO said.
The NSO also provided a comparison of the top 10 expenditure groupings in 2015 when compared to 2001, when the exercise was first undertaken.
The same 10 expenditure groupings featured in both years (see graphic below), albeit in different ranking order. Expenditure on old age ranked first in both 2001 and 2015.
The NSO compared how the government spent its money in 2001 and 2015. Graphics: NSO