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

While it is the direct responsibility of the individual line Minister to manage his or her capital budget, I acknowledge the need to make sure we have a pipeline of projects moving through the system. If it is the medium to long-term objective of Government that a particular project would be delivered then it makes sense for it to continue to move forward through the project lifecycle because various stages have to be passed through before a project goes to tender and on to the construction stage. One of the lessons learned from projects being stalled in the past is that when money then became available projects were not necessarily ready to absorb that capital and move to construction. The priority for me is to ensure that our capital budget is spent, that it is spent well and that we get value for money. We have an overall budget of €12 billion this year, which is a record level of investment by our country in our infrastructure. We had underspends in each of the last two years and Covid is the reason for that.

However, I certainly expect Departments to spend all of their money this year. Where projects are desirable and have merit, it makes sense for us to continue to bring them through the project lifecycle. I will work with the Deputy on that.

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