Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 123: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the estimated total level of capital spending by the Exchequer for 2012. [35531/12]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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In November of last year I published the "Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Medium Term Exchequer Framework" which outlined the five year Exchequer Capital Framework out to 2016. This Framework was published following a Government wide review of the public capital programme led by my Department. The Framework sets out a significant programme of Exchequer investment over the next five years, and is designed to address critical infrastructure deficits, aid economic growth and provide much needed social infrastructure. It will be complemented by the investment plans I announced yesterday which will be largely predicated on using non-Exchequer sources of funding to support the first Phase of a new PPP Programme of projects in key areas of infrastructure.

In 2012, just under €4 billion has been provided for the Exchequer capital programme. At the end of June 2012 capital expenditure by Departments was just over 7% behind profile. This is not unusual as variances can often rise to 10 or 12% at this time of year. Based on information supplied by Departments, I expect most areas to be on profile at year end.