Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is not smoke and mirrors. There is a five-year building programme. Building projects, which are estimated and deemed to be considered to go on site, may run into different difficulties. There may be a planning appeal process, there may be difficulties with the site or otherwise. There is a capital underspend for planned expenditure. It fell short last year and there were savings available which were not going to be drawn down for projects that were deemed to go on site or to go to a further stage along the planning process, incurring design costs etc. That amounted to a sum of approximately €28 million and we were able to keep that. It was within the capital budget, so we were able to use it for capital purposes and we devoted it to the minor works scheme.

There is no provision within the current allocation for this year for a minor works scheme. If more moneys become available, it would be one of the things I would try to do. We are driven in trying to ensure we meet existing demand for net new places, which is a continuous demographic pressure on us in many parts of the country.