Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and Ministers of State for the comprehensive outline of the events and the money available. Getting the money is one thing, spending it is another. As I believe the Department will be aware through parliamentary questions etc., I am very concerned that the money the Department has will not be spent. On what do I base this? At the end of last year €28 million was given to local authorities by the Minister's Department for work that was not done. It is unprecedented. I remember a time when we were not even allowed give money to local authorities for tar which they had bought but which they had not spread and for which they could give us invoices. Now the Minister is able to give €28 million, but it is of no benefit to people. There was also €13 million carried forward. This means that of the money the Department received last year, €40 million of capital did not actually have any effect anywhere on the ground. That is quite concerning.

I am told by the Minister that up to the end of February approximately €2.5 million of that €28 million had been spent. I asked the question again at the beginning of May and was given the figure for the end of February again, so I cannot provide a more accurate figure. I am told that only €2 million of the money carried forward had been spent by 6 March. Again, I am basing my comments on a question I asked on 9 May. Obviously, the Department could not give me a more up-to-date figure.

To go further, I look at the outturns every month and I am trying to get the Department to give me the expenditure reports all the time. I have made another freedom of information request for them. It is very hard for us to oversee what the Government is doing if we cannot get very simple data. One very interesting thing I noticed when I looked at the Exchequer returns was that the net capital expenditure of the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs at then end of April was minus €1 million. I advise the Minister of State, Deputy Ring, to write that down. I understand what happened. The appropriations-in-aid exceeded the actual expenditure.

Gross expenditure at the end of April with a third of the year gone and after very little projected expenditure pertaining to February and March, instead of being €20 million, was only €13 million. The Department has not spent last year's money, that carried forward. The county councils have not spent any percentage of the €28 million worth talking about. We are already behind in respect of this year's money. This is going to come up repeatedly in this discussion. We also know that of the €40 million allocated for the Leader scheme, up to perhaps €10 million will be spent on administration. That leaves €30 million. It does not take a genius to figure this one out but I predict that the Department will be lucky to spend €5 million of that by the end of the year with the processes that are in place. We will come back to that.

Based on information released to the media by the islands section of the Department and parliamentary replies I have received, there is no way that construction will commence on Inis Oírr pier this year. It is just not going to happen. The Minister will be lucky to spend €300,000 in fees between Inis Oírr and Inis Meáin. There is another €1.7 million. Before all the groups get money, the Department has to insist that they spend the money they have. If I know local authorities, if they are let away with not spending what they have, they will put their hands out for more, which they will not spend either. At the end of this year I see us having a huge amount of money that will not be spent. All this arguing about Estimates, how much money was received on budget day and so on will be a waste of time if we are not getting the money on the ground to be of benefit on the capital side.

I am sorry for the long preliminary remark but this is big stuff. We are not talking about a million here and a million there, we are talking about as much as €30 million. My first question is, how quickly is the Minister going to reallocate the money, because she has to go to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to do so? How quickly are we going to reallocate the money? It is no good coming back in September or October and saying that we are not spending on Leader, it is not happening. It is no good saying that we are not spending on the islands and that we now have to go to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform who would sit on it for a few weeks. The Department would then have to get tenders and the Minister knows herself that will not be done.

Is a re-evaluation at this early stage realistic, because the figures we are talking about are so astronomical? Is the Minister going to sit down with her colleagues, the Minister of State, Deputies Ring and Kyne, and say that they have money and that is time to go back the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform early and ask it if they can put more of it into rural development on the ground, necessary rural and town and village schemes, necessary CLÁR programmes, necessary Gaeltacht and island infrastructure projects which could be done this year? Will they do this in order that there will not be an embarrassment of riches at the end of this year while the work has not been done? That is my first big question to the Minister today. Will there be a re-think, because the Minister is sitting on a lot of cash and there is no way she can spend a lot of it because the Leader programme will not spend it this year? It might spend a bit but it will not spend significantly.

Taking it in the round and without looking at any one budget line, though I will come back to that again, is the Minister developing a strategy? We are in May. Forget August, if the Minister has not re-jigged this by the end of July it will be too late. Is that debate taking place? This is my hang-up every time I ask these questions. I think they are valid questions for a Deputy to ask. Will the Minister give me some outline of her thinking, or is she still being told that she will spend all the budget on what it was given for? That is not going to happen.