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Methodology and sources

Flush exists to make Irish public spending easier to check, not to tell you what to think about it. This page sets out where every number comes from, how derived figures are calculated, and the words we use — and avoid — to describe them.

Fact and analysis are kept apart

Documented fact

What a source states: a figure, a date, a status, or a reason the source itself gives — always with the source linked beside it.

Flush analysis

Anything Flush adds by interpretation. Shown in a separate, labelled box and never mixed into a figure or headline.

Why we don't call it “waste”

A budget overrun is not automatically waste. Costs rise because scope is added, because prices change between an early estimate and a tender, because a figure is restated to include VAT or equipment, or because something went wrong. The number alone cannot tell these apart. We describe what the evidence establishes — a cost increase, a variance, a delay, documented expenditure — and leave the judgement to you. Where an audit or review has made a finding, we quote it and link it.

Terms

Cost increase / budget variance
The difference between two published cost figures for the same project. It says how much a figure changed, not why, and not whether anyone did anything wrong.
Like-for-like
Both figures cover the same scope (e.g. construction only) and the same price basis (e.g. 2025 prices, excluding VAT). Only then is the variance a measure of the same thing changing.
Not like-for-like
The figures differ in scope or price basis. We still show the difference, because it is what was published, but flag it beside the number and explain what differs.
Documented expenditure
An amount a source says was spent, where no original budget has been published for comparison. No variance is shown.
Delayed project
A project whose published completion or opening date has moved later. Delay is recorded as a date change, not as a cost.
Contract value
The value a public buyer entered on eTenders when publishing an award. It may be an estimate of total spend over the contract’s life, not money already paid.
Allocation
Money planned for a year in the published estimates. It is not the same as money paid out.

Calculations

  • Variance = latest published figure − earlier published figure.
  • Percentage variance = variance ÷ earlier figure × 100, rounded to a whole number. Not shown where the earlier figure is zero or unknown.
  • Per resident = amount ÷ CSO population estimate (5,525,600, April 2026).
  • Share of total = sector ÷ total × 100, one decimal place.
  • The running counter on the homepage spreads the year's allocation evenly over the year. It is an illustration of scale and is labelled as one; real spending is uneven and is published monthly by the Department of Finance.
  • No cross-project totals. We do not add variances from different projects together: they are measured in different years' prices and on different bases, so the sum would not mean anything a source could stand behind.
  • Amounts are shown as published. Billions are given to two decimal places where the source does (e.g. €15.75bn) and are never rounded up.

Contract awards

  • The data is what public buyers entered on eTenders. Flush does not correct it; if a value looks wrong, the buyer's entry is the place to check.
  • Contract values are not summed, because one award can appear once per supplier with the same total on each line.
  • County is derived only where the authority's own name contains a county (e.g. “Kerry County Council”).
  • Category is the EU CPV division of the main CPV code where one is published, otherwise the category the buyer entered.
  • Framework agreements themselves, and awards under €25,000, are not in this dataset.

Data sources, freshness and caching

whereyourmoneygoes.gov.ie (Dept of Public Expenditure)

What
Total expenditure and expenditure by sector
How obtained
Read daily by an automated job; a capture is only used if its sectors add up to the published total (±1%). Cached in our database.
Source updates
Changes on Budget day and when estimates are revised
Current status
2026 figures, read 1 Mar 2026

Office of Government Procurement — eTenders award CSVs (data.gov.ie)

What
Contract awards over €25,000: authority, supplier, value, date, category, reference
How obtained
Found through the data.gov.ie API and imported automatically, newest release first. Rows are de-duplicated on the award’s own fields.
Source updates
Quarterly
Current status
Not yet imported

Central Statistics Office

What
Population, for per-resident figures
How obtained
Entered by hand from the CSO release and checked on each annual release.
Source updates
Annual (August)
Current status
5,525,600 (April 2026)

Project cost figures

What
Published estimates and outturns for individual projects
How obtained
Entered by hand, each with its own source and date, and re-checked on the date shown on each project page. Official documents are preferred; where only a news report of an official statement could be linked, the source list says so.
Source updates
When a new figure is published
Current status
See each project page

Every document cited

Corrections

If a figure is wrong or out of date, send us the source. We correct errors and note material corrections on the page concerned. On 1 October 2026 we withdrew figures for several projects that could not be traced to a source, and replaced “waste” labels with the terms above.