John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Last week it was stated that there was €330 million still to be spent. What has happened to almost €300 million of that in the past week? I assume the Minister has not spent it in the past week. What does €50 million "behind profile" mean? This is the second year in a row that there has been a huge underspend coming to the end of the year. By the Minister's own figures in a statement issued last weekend, €250 million has yet to be spent. Will she assure us this will be spent? Last year, we had a similar situation and the former Minister, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, stated it would be spent by the end of the year. However, at the end of the year €80 million was brought forward into this year's budget. This is unacceptable. It is amazing because for the past two years, this side of the House has heard there is no money for anything and that there will be cutbacks. The Minister has money and will not spend it. A total of 10% of the children of Ireland will spend their entire schooling in prefabs, which is money being wasted because the Minister will not spend money in her capital budget.

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