Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Some €28 million was allocated from unspent capital expenditure for the minor works grants, which the Minister announced two weeks ago and which was welcome. I made the point on numerous occasions that a specific allocation should have been made in last year's Estimates and in next year's Estimates towards that. When the €28 million is combined with the almost €40 million underspend, the total underspend on the schools' capital budget is €65 million. This is not new. We had the same situation last year, whereby approximately €70 million in the school capital project budget was underspent.

The former Minister, Deputy Quinn, announced minor works grants when the figure became clear. He also announced that there would be a summer works scheme from the funding, something the Minister decided not to do. She is taking the €40 million from the primary and secondary sector and is putting it into the third level sector. She has made a definite decision not to fund a summer works scheme in the coming year, but will instead use the money elsewhere. That is a major issue for many schools which have pent-up demand for projects. There was no scheme in two out of the past three years, and it now seems to be the case that it may not be paid for three out of four years.

It is something to which the Minister must have given a lot of thought and the Department would have considered very clearly. I find it difficult to see how the Minister came to the decision not to pay the summer works scheme because of the nature of the projects awaiting that funding. I ask the Minister to elaborate on that decision.