Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not have that information to hand. I can give it to the Deputy before the committee meeting next week. We will be discussing our Vote at that meeting and I will have all that information. The Deputy referred to the underspend last year. I will not get into another political row but the Deputy understands underspends. During the good times there were major underspends in the Deputy's Department when he was in office. There was a €40 million underspend in 2010 and a €38 million underspend in 2008. I guarantee that there will be no underspend in my Department this year. I was in the Department for six months last year. I introduced the local improvement scheme and the schemes for the shows and the Tidy Towns. I introduced many other schemes. The underspend was €17.7 million. We were able to carry over €7.7 million so the underspend was only approximately €10 million. When the Deputy was the Minister in the Department in the good days, and it was a new Department, he had major underspends. He knows that underspends happen in Departments but I can give him a commitment that it will not happen this year.

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