A levy introduced to recoup some of a €640 million education overspend will have “implications” across the Department of Enterprise, its Minister, Peter Burke, has warned.

It emerged earlier this year that Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers is to try to claw back some of the spending overrun through a €446 million levy on other departments.

Ministers were given until July 17th to tell the Department of Public Expenditure what efficiencies and reforms they were considering to save money.

Burke warned Chambers he would not be able to save €8 million this year “through efficiency measures alone” and that the full impact of the levy would not be clear until after Budget 2027 is announced next month.

The Department of Enterprise said it is “not possible to link a reduction of €8 million in current funding to efficiencies and reforms alone” and that a “reduction in current expenditure will be required to reduce the overall current budget”.

Several Ministers shared details of their savings plans in response to a series of questions from Sinn Féin spokeswoman on public expenditure Mairéad Farrell.

Burke said his department was discussing proposals with the Department of Public Expenditure on how the levy demand could be met.

“However, given the scale of the levy, it is expected that its implementation will have implications for expenditure across the vote. The final package of measures will be agreed through the estimates process,” Burke said.

The Department of An Taoiseach is facing a levy of 1.4 per cent on its budget, with Taoiseach Micheál Martin saying pay and related costs were its main expense. Martin said new areas of work would be met with existing resources and the recruitment of new staff would mainly be done through secondment arrangements.

His department also expects to save more than €500,000 through the winding down of the Covid-19 evaluation at the end of this year. The independent inquiry had received annual funding of about €1 million.

Minister for Finance Simon Harris said his department is expecting to make some savings from the end of Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the European Union. He said any potential impact on public services as a result of the levy would be “offset against the efficiencies and reforms identified”.

Chambers said his department was planning to save money by suppressing a number of roles and cutting spending on “policy reviews, consultancy services and research”.

Minister for Housing James Browne said his department would be able to meet its €5 million levy “without significant impact on the delivery of critical services”. He said his department would invest more in Government or NGO-owned emergency accommodation in an attempt to save money on private providers.

Farrell said she believed the imposition of the levy was a “clear return to austerity” and the cuts involved were unnecessary and unworkable.

“These cuts should be abandoned immediately, and the Minister should commit to allocating the necessary funding to rebuild our public services after years of neglect by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments,” she added.