The Government has exceeded its annual spending target by an average €5.1 billion in each of the last three budgets, new figures from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (Ifac) indicate.While part of the overspend was due to unforeseen factors such as inflation, the budgetary watchdog said a significant portion stemmed from “bad planning” and “poor expenditure management”.“Year after year, we repeat the same mistakes expecting different results. Now is the time to shout stop,” Ifac said in its latest rebuke of Government spending controls.Since 2023, budgetary overruns have averaged €5.1 billion per year, with 2024 accounting for a €7.1 billion overspend. The council noted that most of these overruns, 80 per cent on average, were being driven by overruns on current spending rather than capital spending, with health and education pinpointed as particular flashpoints.Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers has in recent weeks written to all Government departments warning them to rein in spending and says he plans to introduce enhanced oversight mechanisms before the budget.Despite a commitment in the Government’s Medium Term Fiscal and Structural Plan to limit the annual increase to 6 per cent, spending for the first four months of 2026 is already up 9 per cent, driven by overruns in education.Ifac said the four main drivers of budgetary overruns in the State were: unforeseen circumstances; new measures introduced midyear; bad planning and budgeting; and poor expenditure management.[ Department of Public Expenditure to pay up to €8,500 a month on help to sell infrastructure planOpens in new window ]“The first two are fairly innocuous,” the council said, noting the recent inflation spike meant Government inputs cost more than anticipated, while nearly half the 2023 and 2024 overruns came from one-off cost-of-living measures.But that still left overruns of €2 billion in 2023, €3.2 billion in 2024 and €2.4 billion in 2025, which it blamed on poor budgeting and weak oversight.It noted that base spending for each year had been “significantly underestimated” at the time of the budget.“Between the forecasts on budget day and the end of the year, current spending has overrun by an average of €75O million,” it said, noting the starting point for spending each year was wrong. The Department of Public Expenditure has consistently underestimated the cost of maintaining existing services, it claimed.“The Department of Public Expenditure argues that other departments should manage within agreed funding levels – blaming poor expenditure management,” Ifac said. “They have a point, to an extent, and a significant proportion of the overruns do appear to be from poor expenditure management. But we have clearly seen evidence of bad budgeting.” It added: “The budgetary allocation was too low from the start. Delivering planned services on budget becomes nearly impossible if funding was never sufficient. That responsibility lies with the Department of Public Expenditure.”