Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I cannot give an indication that I will agree to more projects coming into the pipeline because that would be an overall Government decision of significance. I am not yet confident that our capital ceilings for the year will allow that to happen but I will look at it in relation to the other two issues the Deputy raised. There are issues with public procurement and the public spending code related to the underspends we have.

I know the Deputy will be aware, given his huge experience, that the absence of carryovers meant Departments unable to spend their capital projects for good reasons sometimes lost all their funding and were not in a position to carry over and continue with projects year by year. Capital carryovers play a valuable role but I accept the general point that we need to look at why underspends are happening and see what we can do to minimise them.

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