Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am substituting for Deputy Michael McGrath. I will not call myself a super-sub but I hope I can engage in a positive manner. I welcome the Minister of State and his officials, particularly Mr. Buckley who is a constituent of mine. In the past he has been a champion of creating jobs and a great advocate for creating employment in some of the forgotten counties such as Roscommon. I wish him well in his role.

I have a number of questions I want to put to the Minister. I acknowledge that we have engaged a lot with the Minister of State and he is good at engaging. He has visited many localities that have been devastated by flooding. There has certainly been some movement on schemes, which I acknowledge. I will put a number of questions to the Minister of State and his officials. If one looks at the flood risk management programme, over a two-year period there has been a reduction of €12 million. The allocation in 2015 was over €87 million but, if I am correct, the allocation for 2017 is €75 million. What is the reason for the scale of that reduction over that two-year period? Was the full allocation drawn down over the years?

Could I have an answer to that question initially?