Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

I look forward to his explanation because the Government has spoken at length about the importance of this initiative and its potential for job creation. It is odd that we have not spent the money allocated to this area. The biggest figure is €26.9 million for agri-food and the rural economy. This is an area in which we have the natural resources, ability and tradition to produce food to high standards. We have the capacity to generate badly needed employment and revenue for the State. I ask the Minister of State to explain why there is an underspend in this area and how the money will be spent this year to maximise the effect of investment.

It appears from the lack of information on underspending and changes to the carry over for next year that the parties opposite changed their attitude after coming into government. The points being now raised by Opposition Deputies are the same as those made by Fine Gael prior to the election. In 2010, the current Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, stated in a debate on a previous deferred surrender to the Central Fund:

With the greatest respect, if this is supposed to be an exercise in transparency I give it a poor D rating. That we have been presented with a list of capital sums without any information as to the project concerned, the reason the projects were not delivered in the year in question, whether it was a question of cost overruns that are being carried forward, what projects have been lost, may fulfil some letter of some obscure law, but it does not shed any light on the efficiency, effectiveness or value of our capital programme. It is pointless bringing us in here to approve a 10% carryover when we do not know any of the background as to the reason the projects were delayed or whether the projects delayed continue to be worth pursuing.

Given that Fine Gael was critical of the previous Government's failure to provide adequate information on the use of public funds, one would have expected more transparency and information from it in Government so that we can properly scrutinise the figures and any changes that may have taken place. Instead, however, we get the same limited list with insufficient information to allow a proper debate on the significance of the figures and the headings under which the money is to be spent.

I ask the Minister of State to provide us with further information. When carry overs and deferred surrenders are discussed in future I hope we are given adequate information on them. While I welcome that the Minister of State will have five minutes to respond to our concerns there should be an opportunity for an exchange that would allow us to inquire about the various headings so we can fully scrutinise and understand the figures.

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