Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Let us forget about profile. Only €3 million of the €10 million allocation had been spent. An issue arises, which has been ongoing in the public service for a long time. The Minister is not the first to come up against it because I came up against it in my time as a Minister. If the Minister has only spent €3 million of €10 million in nine months, which is 30% of the allocation in 75% of the time, one of two things must be happening, and both are totally unacceptable. Either all the work is being packed into the final three months of the year or the agencies are not billing the Department for the work as it is done. Either one is bad practice because if the work is not being done in the first nine months of the year, particularly during the good weather months and long days, the craziest thing happens, and it is a practice I have seen myself. This involves the work being done in December and people are paid overtime to work in dark, cold winter nights. If the agencies are not sending in the bills, that is bad accountancy practice because it means the Department is taking people's word that they will spend all the money. If they have spent €5 million or €6 million - they should have spent €7.5 million by this point - they should have submitted bills for that amount and the Department should have paid them. Will the Minister explain why this always happens with capital? This is not an isolated case. This practice occurs across the Estimates. The Minister would be correct to point out that it also happened in my time. While that is true, I fought against it, just as I am fighting against it now. It is bad practice.