Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I take this opportunity to congratulate Deputy Seán Canney on his appointment and welcome him to my Department. I also want to thank the former Minister of State at my Department, Deputy Seán Kyne, on the great job that he did. I wish him well in his new appointment as Government Whip and Minister of State at the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht with responsibility for the Gaeltacht.

I thank the committee for its invitation to attend to discuss the mid-year expenditure review for the Department. It has circulated a short briefing note to members which includes a summary of the programme areas and sets out expenditure to the end of September.

This has been a year of considerable activity and achievement in the Department. Although Deputies will be aware that it is only a little over a year old, we have made significant progress in bringing it to full operation in that time, while delivering on the ground for communities and rural Ireland. The mission of the Department is even more important as we look at the challenges facing the country and the actions we need to take to ensure a sustainable and high quality of life for all citizens wherever they choose to live and work.

With regard to the allocation for the Department, gross expenditure of €231.532 million is budgeted for 2018. This consists of €144.024 million in current expenditure and €87.508 million in capital expenditure. In addition, provision has been made for a capital carryover of €7.7 million which supplements the provision in the Estimate.

As requested, the committee has been provided with information on expenditure by my Department to the end of September, at which point the total gross spend was €144.34 million. This was made up of €116.2 million in current expenditure and €28 million in capital expenditure.

With regard to actual expenditure compared to profile, at the end of September current expenditure was at 92% of profile and capital expenditure at 62%. Given the fact that capital expenditure has been falling behind profile, I have prioritised this issue within the Department. I am pleased to note that there has been a significant increase in capital expenditure since the end of September, which was to be expected. The focus in the earlier part of the year was on assessing applications and making approvals under schemes and now the bills are coming in. I will outline the most recent figures available to me at the close of this statement.

It is just as important to focus today on what the Department has delivered for communities since its establishment, as well as reflecting on some of the challenges we have faced and how we have addressed them. I will try to keep these remarks short to allow time for discussion with members.

Throughout 2018 I have focused on the twin policy goals of improved rural development and community development. On rural development, an important focus of work has been to develop and launch the new rural regeneration and development fund. This €1 billion fund was established under Project Ireland 2040 and will support ambitious projects that can drive the economic and social development of rural towns, villages and their surrounding areas. The fund provides an exceptional opportunity to support the revitalisation of rural Ireland, make a significant and sustainable impact on rural communities and help make smaller towns, villages and rural areas good places in which to live and work. Initial funding of €315 million will be allocated to the fund in the period 2019 to 2022 on a phased basis. The provisions for the Department in budget 2019 have allowed me to allocate €55 million for the fund in 2019. The closing date for applications under the first call for the fund was 27 September and there has been strong interest across the country. There have been around 290 applications, of which around 125 are for category 1 projects - shovel ready projects - and around 165 are for category 2 projects - projects that need initial development funding to become potential category 1 applications in future calls for the fund. Clear assessment criteria have been published and a project advisory board has been established which will oversee the assessment of applications for the fund. The board is made up of representatives from key Departments, with a number of external experts. On receipt of recommendations for funding from the board, I expect to be in a position to announce an initial number of successful applications in November, with further announcements to follow.

While the rural regeneration and development fund is hugely important for the future development of rural Ireland, I remain just as focused on ensuring the continued success of existing schemes and programmes. For example, this year I have approved 224 projects under the town and village renewal scheme to the value €21 million. I have also approved 389 projects up to a value of €12 million across a series of measures under the CLÁR programme. The town and village renewal scheme is an important part of the Government’s work to rejuvenate rural Ireland and is having a significant impact on towns and villages across the country. The benefit of previous funding under the town and village renewal scheme is being felt countrywide. Since it was introduced in the second half of 2016, almost €53 million has been approved for more than 670 projects across the country.

The LEADER programme is a very important part of the work of my Department. Activity under the programme has increased significantly since the second half of 2017. Over 1,300 projects have been approved by the local action groups, to a value of €43.4 million. There are another 300 or so projects, with a value of over €20 million, going through the approval process. The large volume of projects being approved shows that the changes I have made to the programme are working. The changes have simplified the approval process to be followed by local action groups and LEADER programme applicants and greatly reduced the burden of administrative checks for applicants. The programme is delivering for rural communities. However, despite this ramping up of the LEADER programme, expenditure in 2018 has been less than originally planned. Therefore, I have recently reallocated funds from the LEADER programme to other programmes, namely, an additional €8.6 million for the community enhancement programme and an additional €4 million for library investment. The LEADER programme is demand-led and I remain committed to supporting it. I am confident that the full €250 million available over the lifetime of the programme will be fully utilised.

The other rural development programmes which include the local improvement scheme, the walks scheme and the outdoor recreational infrastructure scheme are also having a real impact in towns, villages and rural areas across Ireland.

With regard to the community development aspect of my work, as the committee is aware, the Department administers a range of programmes that support both individuals and the community and voluntary sector as a whole. The community services programme and the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, are the two most significant in terms of expenditure. The community services programme provides financial support for community organisations to deliver local services through a social enterprise model. The funding supports the costs of employing a manager or a specific number of full-time equivalents. The programme has a allocation of €46 million in 2018. It is benefiting over 400 organisation nationwide, with 1,600 people being supported by the programme.

The social inclusion and community activation programme provides funding to help individuals and communities in society who are experiencing disadvantage. The programme works with people from groups such as disadvantaged women, disadvantaged children and families, lone parents, people with disabilities, those who have difficulties in finding employment, Roma and Travellers. It has an allocation of €43 million in 2018 and supports over 2,200 organisations and 27,000 people. A key development for SICAP in 2018 was the publication of a major review by the ESRI. The review looked at the role of SICAP in the context of other related Government schemes, the continuing suitability of the goals identified by SICAP and the governance structures used in it. The review highlighted a number of areas for improvement such as the need for a greater focus on more intensive individual supports and flexibility to respond to the needs of target groups at local level. They were built into the new SICAP programme that I launched this year.

I will also mention the very successful senior alerts scheme, for which I had originally allocated €2.3 million at the start of 2018. However, the scheme has been far more successful than originally envisaged and I will be allocating further funds for the programme. It will be made up of €2 million from the community services programme and €1.75 million from the Dormant Accounts Fund allocation. The funding allocated towards the seniors alert scheme has allowed over 13,000 people to benefit from it so far this year.

I will talk briefly about the new community enhancement programme which I launched this year. It replaces and builds on two existing schemes. Combining them has allowed a more flexible and targeted approach to be adopted to providing funding for the communities most in need.

The community enhancement programme provides capital funding for communities across Ireland to enhance facilities in disadvantaged areas. It is administered by the 33 local community development committees, LCDCs. In May it initially provided €4.5 million in grant funding for 2018 towards enhancing the facilities available to communities. However, as the programme was greatly oversubscribed, I reallocated €8.6 million for it for other projects around the country.

We are having this meeting to focus on the mid-term review of expenditure. The full details to the end of September have been provided in the briefing document sent to the committee. As members can see, capital expenditure at the end of September was some way behind profile. Close monitoring of the spend position is a significant priority for me and my officials. There has been significant direct engagement with the chief executives of local authorities and close and frequent contacts with local authorities and the LEADER local action groups to ensure we have an accurate picture of the level of activity on the ground. In that regard, the spend at the end of September does not reflect fully the value of expenditure incurred to date across projects that are now at or close to completion. As the committee will be aware, many of the funding schemes operated by the Department involve a large number of individual projects. A key factor is ensuring that, when they are completed, the claims for payment are issued in a prompt manner. That will remain a priority for the rest of the year. I am satisfied, on the basis of projections for the spend to year end, that there will be a full spend under the Vote in 2018. The position on Friday, 28 September was that the capital spend stood at €28 million, compared with a profiled spend of €45 million. The latest position is that, at close of business yesterday, the Department's capital spend for the year to date had reached €48.6 million. This represents a spend of €20.5 million in October to date, which highlights the ramp-up that was expected at this time of the year. I expect progress to continue in the coming weeks.

I have kept my remarks brief so as to allow a full discussion on the programmes and funding of my Department this year. I emphasise that we are making good progress in monitoring capital expenditure. I will ensure our allocations are fully spent this year, in the process delivering for communities and rural Ireland.

I call on my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Canney, to say a few words.