Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy has to look at the base as well. Let us consider what the capital allowed in 2020. Going back a couple of years, there was a significant increase in capital expenditure right the way through. The Deputy could go back to 2015 if he wanted to but in more recent times, capital expenditure in 2020 was €2.197 billion, which increased in 2021 to €2.25 billion and increased in 2022 to €2.8 billion. We are seeing significant increases in capital across all programmes.

On the housing side, there will be a small amount of surrender in the overall context and there were specific reasons in 2022. We had significant issues with the supply chain and inflation. We tackled that by bringing forward the inflation framework, and burden sharing between the sector and Government to make sure that projects did not stop. Some projects that were nearing completion did not complete at the end of last year and, therefore, the payments were not submitted for a small number of projects, which will have affected the amount. I will bring forward a memo to Cabinet in early March.