Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Okay. The Minister might not agree with many of us who believe the capital underspend should be re-diverted into major capital programmes in areas such as housing. The current underspend is €265 million, €178 million of which the Minister needs to refund water charges by the end of the year. We have established that it is now the norm for the expenditure of Departments to be under profile. Does the Minister intend to issue a direction to Departments telling them to come under profile, or to change their expenditure headlines? I will give an example. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs currently has an underspend of €39 million. Will it be given a free hand to spend that €39 million as it wishes? Will the Minister issue a direction at some point in time to that Department, and indeed to other Departments, telling them they will not be able to utilise such moneys?