Ms Oonagh McPhillips:

We have put quite a lot of work into this in recent years. We have set up a dedicated funds unit and gathered up grant schemes and projects from various units throughout the Department. They have now been centralised in one unit with that objective in mind. We want to make the process as accessible as possible while meeting the very onerous standards imposed by the EU in order to recoup as much as possible from EU funds. Our funds administration unit has been successful in increasing that drawdown in recent years.

Where funds are not used it generally means that a project is not ready or has not been up and running for a full year. Expenditure catches up in the following year. One example is the Garda youth diversion programme. Sometimes a staff member has not on been a salary for a full year and expenditure has not been made.