Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Fine Gael is very creative when it comes to finding money and especially justifying the removal of €100 million from other capital projects by using words such as "rescheduling", "re-profiling" and "adjustments". Let us call them what they are: cuts. If one reschedules funds for a project, essentially one is delaying the provision of funding for that project for at least another year. That is a cut. Not only is it a financial loss, it is also a loss of time dedicated to the project. The people who were to benefit are directly affected by the delay and, economically, when a project is delayed, the economic development of the region is also affected negatively. I would not even call them cuts but daylight robbery. My constituency of Donegal will be affected disproportionately by the removal of €100 million from capital project funding. It was targeted disproportionately during years of austerity and is still reaping the consequences. The trend of targeting the county continues today. The so-called rescheduling of €27 million from the A5 motorway project in Northern Ireland is a dramatic blow. With many others, I have been campaigning for the project for a number of years. The upgrade was badly needed years ago and we cannot afford to have it rescheduled, as the Minister calls it. Will he tell us what the new schedule will be and if a guarantee will be put in place to ensure no further rescheduling will take place, although we cannot know what those guarantees would be worth?

My other concern is the mysterious cuts or rescheduling of €24 million to be spend on other health facilities in County Donegal. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, has not yet specified which health projects will be affected by the need to reschedule the spending of this money. Some have raised concerns that Sheil Hospital in Ballyshannon might be affected, but we do not know for certain. I pay tribute to the board in Limerick board for coming out and indicating what was happening, whereas, unfortunately, the HSE in County Donegal was playing the game and covering up the cuts for the Government. I am concerned about other long sought after projects such as those at St. Joseph's community hospital in Stranorlar and the community hospital in Ramelton. People cannot deal with the uncertainty which the cuts have fuelled further. The list goes on.

County Donegal will also be affected by the proposed re-profiling or cutting of €3 million from investment under the flood risk management programme in the Office of Public Works. Constituents are worried that funding will be removed from the flood relief scheme plan for Buncrana which is sorely needed. If it is flooded this year, will we tell them that it was not cut but that the funding was just re-profiled? The Minister has not been able to tell us how the re-profiling of payments of €4 million under certain programmes of investment in the areas of communications, climate action and environment will affect the meeting of Ireland's climate action obligations, both internationally and domestically, and its overall transition to a low carbon economy.

It is always baffling how easily the Government can find €100 million in Departments when it wants to do so, but when it is asked to fund mental health services, the recruitment of nurses or increases in homeless services, suddenly there is no money available. The saddest thing of all is that Fine Gael is taking the money from other projects to cover its inability to manage large-scale projects. That shows an incredible level of incompetence.

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