Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the breakdown of the €61.35 million in capital savings, €15 million relates to the temporary partial credit guarantee scheme. The success of that scheme meant companies were able to repay their debts and did not have to draw down State funding, which was positive. It showed that credit guarantee schemes are useful, can work and are not as costly as may have been thought when they were established.

Enterprise Ireland's expected saving is less than €52 million but this is not confirmed. As the Deputy will know, Enterprise Ireland operates several schemes on behalf of our Department, and there is often a lag between approval and the drawing down of funds. This includes the green transition fund, the digital transition fund, the online retail scheme and the flood relief scheme. The projects approved under the regional enterprise development fund have not all drawn down funding yet. There are several schemes for which I can get the Deputy the exact details if she wants.

There is an underspend of about €18 million in the climate and digital transition fund, which was partly due to the timing of the launch of the scheme in the third quarter. Some of these schemes were launched towards the end of the year. It takes a lot to get them up and running. While they may have been agreed earlier in the year, it can take time to get them open and have funds drawn down. Approval has been given for €7.9 million of the €10 million allocation for the digital transition fund. Funding for the online retail scheme, which is a smaller scheme, has not been drawn down in full. We will know the figures by the end of the year.

In general, however, it is not. Every year we have a similar conversation about Enterprise Ireland, EI. It is the nature of the business and that will happen quite a lot. Naturally, we expect and hope that a number of the schemes will come into the system next year and be drawn down. While the budget for next year has been increased as well, this is not uncommon because that is the way it works in Enterprise Ireland. It makes schemes available. Sometimes they are competitive and sometimes they are not, but there is a process in application and drawing down the funding. No matter what way we do this, we possibly cannot address or fix how the money is drawn down, but it can be difficult if a scheme is only opened in August or September and the money has to be spent by Christmas. We want to be able to work with the organisations and the clients to ensure they know there is funding in place for next year if they are in a position to draw down and spend money.