Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I presume the reference in the circular to pre-funding relates to situations where the person who is going to engage in the expenditure would not have the where with all to carry out the work without pre-funding, which I understand. Would the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform consider the fact that a Minister was not able to spend the money made available to a Department an adequate reason for pre-funding? It is obvious that local authorities handle much larger sums of money than the €28 million that was disbursed to 30 local authorities, amounting to less than €1 million each, and that following the normal pattern of vouched expenditure would not be a problem for them. In that context, would the fact that the Minister could not spend the Department's money in time be a sufficient reason for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to give sanction for the pre-funding of local authorities so that the Government would not have the embarrassment of a Minister who was not able to spend the money allocated? That is basically what happened last year.

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