John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I do not want to go over the ground covered by Deputy Quinn, but the Minister has tried to tell us that the reason the major projects are slower has to do with the new contract or tendering processes. I am somewhat confused as to why there should be such a hold up that almost half of the money has not been spent. I suppose it makes a change for us to be discussing money that was made available and not spent, but there is a great deal of confusion in all our constituencies as a result of the figures that were released a few weeks ago. The Minister visited my constituency last May, for instance, and met many delegations. He basically told people that he found it difficult to honour the commitments that had been made by his predecessor. There is also the question of more than €100 million being spent on prefabs because money was not available for permanent buildings, and this has confused the situation.

I have a couple of questions for the Minister. Will this money be lost or will it be put in as part of the capital programme for next year? In other words, will a sleight of hand be done as regards the programme for building, next year, and what measures does the Minister envisage taking to ensure this does not happen? It is difficult for us to explain the situation to boards of management where the schools are falling in around them. I have had plenty of offers in the past week, as I am sure every Deputy has, from interested parties to the effect that they will show the Minister how to spend the half a billion if he does not know how.

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