Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Much of the drilling down should be done at departmental level because the Department controls that. We are looking at the over-arching carry over. The general principal is that the maximum that can be carried over is 10%. By definition, it is a small subset of the total capital allocated. We monitor it on a monthly basis. Contrary to the normal workings of my Department, we push them to spend because we are anxious that allocated capital budgets are spent.

For a variety of reasons, difficulties arise. There was an underspend last year in the water services section of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and I had regular conversations with the Minister.