Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As has been observed many times, we have a series of housekeeping Bills that must go through the Oireachtas and this is one of them. The Appropriation Bill has two primary purposes, the first of which is to give the legal authorisation for the expenditure that occurred in 2021 on the basis of Estimates voted by the Dáil over the course of the year, and the second of which is to provide the legal basis for spending to continue into next year in the period before the Dáil votes on the Estimates. The sums granted by the Central Fund (Permanent Provisions) Act 1965 enable the Central Fund to make good supply granted, and the aggregate sum the Minister mentioned was €73 billion. We are all aware there is a constitutional requirement for this Bill as it legislates for the financial resolution that includes all the Estimates agreed by the Dáil this year, and this explains why it has come so late in the year. In many ways this is a box that absolutely needs to be ticked to ensure much of the show continues to be on the road.

The key to the Appropriation Bill is the four fifths rule spoken of by the Minister as it means Departments can spend money come January 2022. If the Bill is not enacted, the Departments could not spend and, in its simplest form, the four fifths rule means Departments can spend up to four fifths of the previous year's voted expenditure before a vote is required to take place to authorise extra money. The Bill also allows for that capital carry-over as per the Finance Act whereby each Department can carry over that 10% capital allocation to the next year. I note this year the deferred surrender relating to capital supply services is totalling €820 million, the spending of which will be key to our recovery and tackling the big issues to come.

Such matters are still very much to come. Despite us thinking we may be progressing through Covid-19, we are certainly not at the end of it. Nobody has a total figure for what this country will be required to carry for the foreseeable future. The carry-over from 2020 to 2021 was €748 million, attributed by the Minister to the delay in capital projects throughout 2020 as a result of the pandemic. Delays and interruptions to capital projects as a consequence of the country dealing with Covid-19 were responsible for a significant increase in capital carry-over compared with the previous year. Will the Minister clarify the level of anticipated capital carry-over into 2023 should the Covid-19 pandemic worsen or if there is a requirement to increase restrictions? We certainly acknowledge there is a valid reason for a period of catching up on capital projects, but this cannot continue indefinitely.

I take this opportunity to speak to some of those capital projects and the funding models currently in place. I will use a specific example. Currently, there are two proposed palliative care units in community healthcare organisation, CHO, 8, one in the Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore and the other in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. The former, despite being mooted for many years and a hospice room being provided in the hospital in Tullamore since the early 1990s, is still at the very initial stages of development. It is also caught at a level of legal quagmire to boot.

In March this year, through a reply to a parliamentary question, I learned the HSE agreed to provide funding from the capital budget to enable architectural plans to be drafted to support the development. The information was updated in April, noting that the Offaly Hospice Foundation had commissioned drawings to inform the development and, together with the Hooves 4 Hospice and the Tullamore Lions Club, hoped to raise €1.5 million for the build. Essentially, to date, the HSE has incurred little to no costs relating to that proposed 16-bed to 20-bed hospice. Its commitment to providing funds for the architectural plans was negated by the submission of drawings paid for by the Offaly Hospice Foundation.

At the other end of CHO 8 in County Louth, plans appear to be significantly further ahead by virtue of the presence of a philanthropic donor who has retained project managers and architects for the development of a hospice on site and adjacent to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. This was donated by a religious order. All of the costs associated with this are again expected to be borne by philanthropic donations, and the unit will be built by the charity and signed over to the HSE on a 9,999-year lease. As in the midlands, the HSE has again incurred little to no cost to date relating to the proposed 30-bed to 36-bed hospice in that location.

These may be classed as capital projects but they are not funded through that process. Every cent spent on the examples I have been given has been donated to a State service that gives dignity at the end of life. Nobody underestimates the importance and vital role hospices play at the end of a person's life and the impact dignity in death has on the grieving loved ones left after the person passes away.

While this is ongoing, in my constituency of Longford-Westmeath the voluntary South Westmeath Hospice committee has had to resort to legal action as a result of the disdain with which it was treated by the HSE. I remind Members that, without making generalisations or assumptions, usually when community members come together for a cause such as a local hospice service, it is because a need for such a service has been brought to their attention or they have experienced that lack of service personally or through family or a circle of friends.

A voluntary committee usually grows from an identified need or gap in the community and it takes it on itself to do its best to fill it. What the voluntary committee of South Westmeath Hospice managed to achieve just as the recession began to really sink its teeth into the country is extraordinary and it should be commended. In August 2010, its fundraising efforts in support of the people of south Westmeath and beyond led to a four-bed inpatient palliative care unit being opened on the grounds of what used to be St. Vincent's hospital and is now St. Vincent's care centre in Athlone. It is a two-storey unit of 8,500 sq. ft. Of the €1.9 million required for its construction, the vast majority - a staggering €1.45 million - was financed again not through capital expenditure but through fundraising campaigns and voluntary donations.

Nobody can dispute that the people of south Westmeath own the blood, mortar, sweat and tears of almost every inch of that building. However, that is being dismissed by the "take it or leave it" attitude from the HSE, again when it has access to the capital funding. Instead, the committee is being told there will be a commemorative plaque but there will be no transferring or mirroring in a new premises. Where is the capital funding in this regard? What has been offered by the HSE is an insult to the committee and every single person - man, woman and child - who bought tickets, baked cakes, engaged in various fundraising activities, and worked so hard to provide that vital specialist service in the area.

More important, the impact of moves like those of the HSE in this case will have a knock-on effect when other projects are in need of community contributions. This is just one example and I can confidently say there is not a community throughout this country that at some point has not dug deep into their after-tax pay to contribute to a fund for some essential building or service. We might speak of capital funding here but we do it against the backdrop of a reality where communities with deeper pockets are better placed to see realised projects like a modern and fit-for-purpose hospice, an MRI machine, a school or a domestic violence refuge.

As I have said, this Bill is akin to housekeeping and we support it. I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for her discretion in allowing me to speak this evening.

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