Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Department of Finance has some interaction on it then. I have been digging into the climate action fund a bit. In 2021 there was €124 million in the fund, which primarily came from the National Oil Reserves Agency, NORA, levy and only €9.5 million was spent. Similarly, in 2022 an extra €92 million was put in and only €17 million was spent. That means that €189 million is sitting in that fund, which is aside from the NORA levies going in this year. Do we have a problem with spending this money? When you look at the budget and the infrastructure, climate and nature fund, we are saying that we will spend it from 2026 because we cannot spend it now. Is this a similar issue? We have a huge amount of money and we have so many problems that need to be resolved.