Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important policy question. I agree that we should have better data on how money is spent and on where it is spent. That is something that we are very much aligned on. I also agree that Governments do not have any money. The only money that Governments have is the money that we take from people and business in the form of taxation. It is not our money. It is the people's money. That is why we have to spend it responsibly. That is why we have to account for it properly.

We do have strong accountability mechanisms. We publish accounts every year. Every Government agency does so. Every Government Department has an annual report. We have a Committee on Public Accounts, which is chaired by the Opposition and which has considerable powers. We have a constitutional office in the Comptroller and Auditor General, who is responsible for auditing Government spending. Therefore, we have strong accountability mechanisms in that regard.

Capital spending happens all over the country. Sometimes when people do regional analysis as to how it is spent, they only focus on the big projects. I have seen some of the reports that Deputy Shanahan has mentioned. Often, they only count projects of over €30 million or €40 million. That is a misleading analysis. Of course, big cities will have the bigger, expensive projects. In more rural areas, there will be many smaller projects. Any analysis that only counts investments above a certain threshold is only and can only ever be a partial analysis.

One of the biggest investments that is under way at the moment, probably the biggest single investment that is under way at the moment in the State, is the national broadband plan. That is heavily skewed towards regional areas. It includes all regions but particularly regions outside of Dublin and areas that are most rural. The more rural you go, the more that project costs. The last mile is the most expensive aspect of that project. That project is doing something that almost no other country in the world has done. It is bringing fibre broadband to pretty much every home, farm and business in the country. It is really important, in my mind, in future proofing and digital proofing our country. The targets for its implementation have been revised after Covid-19. However, they are now being met. We now know that the cost of that project will be less than had originally been budgeted for. It will come in at under €3 billion. That is significant. That is the biggest single capital project happening in Ireland at the moment. Metro when it happens will be bigger, but at the moment this is the biggest one and it is very much focused on regional development and on rural areas. Yet, it gets left out of many of these analyses. I do not know why.

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