Ministry of Climate redirects rural support measure money to salary fund
The Ministry of Climate is redirecting €580,000 from the budget of a rural residential real estate support program, distributed through EIS, to cover a shortfall in its labor costs. According to the ministry, there was surplus funding in the support program but not enough money to cover salaries.
"Since the budget for the rural residential real estate support program, which falls under the Ministry of Climate, was overplanned, but the ministry's labor cost budget is in deficit, the Ministry of Climate has submitted a proposal to amend the state budget law so that the €580,000 surplus from the program can be redirected to cover labor costs," explained Kadri Peetersoo, the ministry's head of communications.
Peetersoo said that as a result of the move, no support payments will go unpaid, the number of jobs at the ministry will not increase and no salaries will be raised.
She added that the budget had been drawn up based on the best information available at the time, in explaining the need to reallocate the funds.
"A total of €5 million was allocated for the rural residential real estate support program for one year, but based on the payout forecast — meaning the number of applications received and the expenses eligible for compensation — we now see that the full amount will not be disbursed. There may be several reasons for this: construction costs turned out lower, some expenses were not eligible for support, costs are arising after the support period or during construction it turned out that other work was needed instead of the originally planned one," the communications chief explained.
According to Peetersoo, the reason for the shortfall in salary funding is a structural deficit in personnel costs that already arose when the Ministry of Climate was established in 2023.
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Editor: Mari Peegel, Marcus Turovski
