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

I would like to thank the Minister for confirming what I have said. The profile is an extraordinarily low €34 million for the first eight months. It works out at about 40%. Basically, the Department admitted fairly early that it was not going to spend the money. The reality is that the Minister has not done so. Leaving aside the money that should have been spent last year and has been carried over into this year - that should not have occurred - the fact of the matter is the Minister has only spent €16 million out of the €88 million in new money he got for this year.

Let us take just one subhead. What is the allocation for the Leader programme this year and what is the spend to date? I am asking about allocation versus spend. It is a simple question. We will save time. It will only take the Minster two seconds to answer that one. The answer is in the Minister's table, by the way.

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