Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will announce it very shortly. I have written to the local authorities and set out a schedule for the schemes and their timeframes for this year. The Deputy is quite correct on the underspend. I have €5 million again this year. It is a substantial amount of money and I will look to see what I will finally allocate but for now I have €5 million in the budget. The scheme has worked very well, particularly the measures I have introduced. The first responder scheme has worked well. The playgrounds have probably been a bit more difficult because some of them need planning and construction. I am very pleased with the outcome of the spend on the CLÁR programme. It was one of the better schemes that worked.

The Deputy has spoken about the funding. The Deputy, his leader and those in Fianna Fáil have been criticising the funding. In the budget for this year we have €88 million for capital funding. For 2019, we have €141 million. For 2020, we have €150 million. For next year I have a 60% increase in the budget. We have a major capital programme for the next number of years. The CLÁR programme was closed for many years. To be fair, the local authorities did not have the capacity and they did not know what schemes were coming down the line. I recently met representatives of the County and City Management Association and I have put my schedule in writing including when I expect to announce schemes. The local authorities also need to know the funding will be on a continuing basis, which is now guaranteed by the budget for this year and for 2019 and 2020.

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