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

I will respond to Deputy Durkan and it is a matter for the Leas-Cheann Comhairle if she wants to allow the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, to respond to Deputy Carroll MacNeill.

Some Departments are quite adept at spending their capital budget. The Department of Education is very good at delivering school building programmes, extensions and new schools. It has well-developed processes and can navigate its way through the public spending code quite well. People will always raise issues about individual projects but, by and large, when I look at the performance in the round, I see a Department that is delivering and is spending its capital allocation, whereas other Departments are not achieving the same. They will point to problems in the supply chain, to recent construction materials inflation, to labour shortages and to an issue around capacity generally in the private sector in recent times. Having said that, as a Government, we have made a conscious decision to prioritise the public capital investment programme. The budget next year, with a carry-forward, will well exceed €12 billion. We want to ensure that the public service, working with the private sector, can deliver on that national development plan. I look forward to engaging with the Deputy on that.

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