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

I thank all Deputies for the contributions they have made. I will respond now to a number of the matters that were raised in this debate, including the issue of accountability in relation to the huge amounts of money that I am asking the Dáil to vote on this afternoon. I thank Deputies for recognising the importance of the passing of this legislation but I would emphasise that in order to get to this point, Revised and Supplementary Estimates had to be passed in order for this Bill to be passed. Those individual Estimates were all debated by the Oireachtas in the relevant Oireachtas committee. Before we got to the point of dealing with the Appropriation Bill here today, Supplementary Estimates were passed. That involved Ministers bringing those Supplementary Estimates before their Oireachtas committees to be scrutinised at that point.

It is custom that this legislation is dealt with quickly by the Dáil. As Deputies Conway-Walsh and Ó Snodaigh acknowledged, it normally happens during the month of December, later in the year but we know that it is not happening then for other reasons. That said, it is important to emphasise that even though the timing is different, in order to get to the point of the Appropriation Bill being before the House, Estimates were discussed by the relevant Oireachtas committee. That is the point at which the scrutiny happens.

The next point I would make relates to the carryovers that we have discussed here this evening. First, the capital carryover in this particular Appropriation Bill is €207.21 million. I take the point that it is a very large amount of money but it is still only 1.6% of the total capital allocation that was available to Government Departments for 2024. Even though it is a very large amount of money, it is a comparatively small amount of the total capital budget that was available to all Departments. The money is being carried over but that does not mean it is being handed back. It just means that it is going to be spent at a different point. Deputy Boyd Barrett talked about €24 million but that money is not being surrendered back. The money is still with the Department of sport. What it means is that instead of being spent in October, November or December, it will be spent in January, February or March or at some other point next year. The point that the Deputy and others were making was-----

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