Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 4 October 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs

Estimates For Public Services 2017: Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs

1:30 pm

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

-----agus cúrsaí forbartha tuaithe a bhí thar a bheith tábhachtach. Mar a tharla, bhí mé imithe níos faide ná mar a bhí súil agam leis, mar bhí ceisteanna tosaíochta faoin ábhar céanna agus theastaigh uaim na freagraí a thabharfaí dóibh sin le nach mbeadh mé ag déanamh athrá. Sin an míniú maidir le cá raibh mise. Tá mé gnóthach ó thosaigh an cruinniú seo.

While the Minister does not have responsibility for rural and regional affairs, her Department did and, according to my estimates and the figures given to me recently, the underspend on the rural and regional side of the new Department, not the community side, will be in the region of €30 million. Why was remedial action not taken a lot sooner to reallocate the money when it was obvious that it was not going to be spent on, for example, the Leader programme or the town and village renewal scheme? The Minister should not let anyone tell her that county councils are suddenly going to spend €12 million between 4 October and the end of the year when they could not spend in nine months the money they were given at the end of last year.

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