Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy needs to inform himself of the facts. A great deal of the capital spend in the education sector takes place at the back end of the year, when payments are made. The significant ICT moneys that are now being dispensed also come out of that capital spend. Multi-annual capital budgeting came into vogue under this Administration. When the Deputy was last in office, the problem was that schools did not know what allocations they would get from one year to the next. That is probably one of the reasons so little got done. We are seeing excellent value for money in the education sector. Our carry-over facility is enabling us to deal with tendering prices on a multi-annual basis. These are good examples of value for money, which was mentioned by the Deputy. Money is being spent in a planned way as projects which have been approved for construction to begin are being completed. The devolved grants scheme, which was introduced under this Administration, and the summer works scheme-----

See this speech in context