Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Yes, I accept that. I am not suggesting that the Department should get into project delivery. What I am suggesting is that when the Department is testing how the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is doing in respect of delivery, it should have somebody who can ask probing questions about the delivery of different projects. The spending of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the example given, is now 30% under profile three quarters of the way through the year. Were this trajectory to continue, we would say it will be 40% under profile by the end of the year. Now, we both know that is not going to happen because that Department is going to spend like billy-o at the end of the year. The question, however, is what this money is going to be spent on. Are officials from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform sitting down with those from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and asking this question now? For example, if this money is going to be spent on turnkey developments all over the country, is this what the Government intended would be done or was it intended that housing would be delivered in a different and sustained way throughout the year? Is this a satisfactory way of managing this endeavour?