Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform further to Parliamentary Question 111 on 10 October 2012, if after the €120m cumulative underspend on the capital programme in August 2012 by reference to profile, the €236m underspend on the capital programme in September 2012 and the €336m underspend on the capital programme in October 2012, if Departments are withholding spending on the capital budget in order to offset overspends on current expenditure. [51151/12]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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As stated in previous replies, the actual roll-out of capital expenditure is a matter for individual line Departments and their agencies, operating within the annual allocations approved by Government and the delegated sanction arrangements issued by my Department.

My Department's role is to allocate resources based on the information supplied by departments in relation to their contractual commitments, planned programme expenditure and delegated sanction arrangements. These allocations are approved by the Dáil as part of the overall Voted expenditure ceilings for each Department. My Department monitors all current and capital spend reported by Departments on a month by month basis to identify potential overruns.

Information from Departments indicates that the bulk of their remaining capital budgets will be spent by year end. The spending pattern is in line with trends from previous years which show that the bulk of capital expenditure takes place in the last quarter of the year. Where it is not possible to spend their capital allocation in full by year end, Departments may apply to carryover unspent capital (up to a maximum of 10% of their Voted capital allocation) into the next year.

In the context of the requirement to meet our deficit targets and restore our economic sovereignty, each Department must ensure that the Vote level allocations are adhered to and that both capital and current expenditure are managed from within the overall allocation for the Vote. Should an overspend arise, the relevant Department may seek to address it through virement of savings from one sub-head to another; however, to do so requires sanction from my Department.