Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In my time in the Department, I have introduced new reporting requirements whereby the Departments with the largest capital budgets report directly to the Cabinet on their outturn from capital expenditure. It is an issue that I review regularly. I have emphasised the importance of and need to implement the public capital programme. This is money that we want to see spent. I will be monitoring the issue closely over the course of this year. If we see a scenario where significant underspends emerge in one area and we conclude that it is unlikely that they will be spent over the course of the year, we have the ability to transfer capital budgets from one area to another. We will not be recalcitrant in doing so if it is merited.

We want Departments to spend their budgets. In the main, they do. They have significant carryovers into the current year. We expect this to be a year without any closure of construction due to the pandemic, so there will be no excuses for not spending these budgets.

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