Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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13. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the reason for the underspend in her Department's Vote in 2016 to date; the steps taken to reduce this underspend; if she is hopeful that all her Department's Vote will be spent by the end of 2016; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31102/16]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The current underspend against profile within my Department's Vote has occurred principally because of delays in the drawdown of funding in relation to- the Arts Programme in respect of certain once-off Decade of Centenary projects; and

- the Rural and Regional Programme that transferred to my Department in June.

The Decade of Centenary projects where there have been some delays in drawdown are part of the ‘Permanent Reminders’ component of the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme. They included Richmond Barracks, the new cultural centre at Pearse’s Cottage at Ros Muc and the Tenement Museum in Henrietta Street. All of these are now either completed or very close to completion, and will take up all of their planned 2016 allocation by the end of this year. There were also unavoidable delays in some other cases – for example, the National Monument at 14-17 Moore Street and the major redevelopment at the National Archives. While some progress has been made on these projects, the full expected drawdown of funds will not now occur this year.

With regard to the Rural and Regional Programme, the main delay in drawdown is in relation to the LEADER Programme and is due to the fact that the new programme has only recently commenced.

All expenditure within my Department's Vote continues to be carefully monitored to ensure the best use of available financial resources. Public Financial Procedures provide that a maximum of 10% of the capital envelope of a Vote may be carried over by way of deferred surrender to the following year for spending in that year on priority capital programmes. For my Department, this means that a maximum of just over €13½ million in capital can be carried over into 2017, subject to the approval of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

It is too early to accurately forecast the end of year outturn at this point in time but no savings beyond those which can be carried forward by deferred surrender into 2017 are envisaged at present.