Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his good wishes. Both of us share an interest in and a passion for this area and I look forward to working with him. There is €21 million in capital to be spent between now and the end of the year in three weeks' time, and €8.6 million in current expenditure. Is the Minister confident that he will spend that €21 million, particularly in capital? I suspect he will spend the allocation in current expenditure. Can he give a guarantee that if it is not spent, it will go into his Department's budget next year as opposed to going back into the central Exchequer? Are there programmes into which the Minister intends to divert extra cash over the next two weeks or maybe when the House is in recess? Can he give us an indication of what those programmes are?

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