Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to engage with the joint committee on the Estimate for my Department and consider the mid-year expenditure and programme indicator outturns where they are available. I am happy to outline my priority areas for expenditure in the three year period 2017 to 2019 and also interested in hearing the views of members on the areas and programmes they would seek to prioritise in that period. I am joined by the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Kyne, who has responsibility for the natural resources division in my Department; Mr. Mark Griffin, Secretary General, Mr. Martin Finucane, finance officer; Mr. Denis Maher, principal officer, inland fisheries division; and Mr. Jim Whelan, assistant principal officer, finance unit.

The total provision for my Department in 2016 is €111.2 million for capital investment and €318.6 million for current spending, of which €222.1 million represents a pass-through of television licence receipts. To the end of June, the Department had spent €30.6 million of its capital moneys out of profiled expenditure of €40.7 million, representing a figure of 75% of profiled capital expenditure. On current expenditure, the Department had spent €147.7 million out of profiled expenditure of €156.7 million, representing a figure of 94% of profiled current expenditure. Appropriations-in-aid were running at €105 million out of profiled expenditure of €112.5 million, representing a figure of 93% of profiled expenditure.

Funding this year is allowing the Department to progress projects in key areas such as the national broadband plan to ensure all citizens and businesses will have access to high speed broadband, no matter where they live or work; the trading online voucher scheme to support 1,000 more small companies to trade online to help them to grow and create jobs; the benefIT programme that will help approximately 30,000 citizens to access and use online resources and public services; domestic energy efficiency improvements to support increased employment in the construction and energy services sectors; energy efficiency in the business and public sectors; the electric vehicle grants scheme; the Tellus geo-environmental mapping project; and the continuation of rehabilitation works at the former Avoca mine site in County Wicklow.

As I signalled to members when we met on 29 June to discuss the Estimate for 2016, there will be a deferral of some expenditure on the broadband programmes this year. My Department has since received sanction from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to move capital of some €2.5 million from this subhead into the following areas: €500,000 for TG4 to complete the undertaking to carry out refurbishment works at its headquarters in Baile na hAbhann, County Galway; €500,000 for the Geological Survey of Ireland to fund an airborne LIDAR survey as part of the groundwater 3D mapping programme; €1.3 million for Inland Fisheries Ireland for investment in the recently completed national strategy for angling development to cover increased fisheries development activity, infrastructure improvements and new equipment; and €200,000 for additional work to be carried out this year at the old Avoca mines site.

Looking to the next three years, the investment priorities for my Department are expected to arise in the following areas: climate change and the linked areas of energy efficiency and renewable energy - the effort does not fall to my Department alone and expenditure and policy choices will have to be made in other Departments, in particular, the Departments of Transport, Tourism and Sport and Agriculture, Food and the Marine; the delivery of the national broadband plan, with expenditure on the programme to be ramped up significantly from 2018 onwards; continuing initiatives under the national digital strategy, including the expansion of the trading online voucher scheme and the benefit digital skills training programmes; funding of public service broadcasting, an issue which has been the subject of extensive media coverage in the past few weeks; building on the State’s cyber security capacity; and investing in a range of programmes in the area of natural resources, including inland fisheries and the remediation of mine sites.

There are many competing demands across Departments and only a finite amount of money can be allocated across these demands. We will continue to make our case for increased funding in the next few weeks as part of the Estimates process. I look forward to engaging with members of the committee on the areas where we could consider prioritising expenditure in the coming years.