Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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345. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the reason the gross capital expenditure of her Department is 34.6% below profile for the first four months of the year; the steps she will take to ensure a full spend of capital allocated to her Department in 2017 in view of the slow progress in spending the carry forward of capital to her Department and local authorities in 2017 in carrying out works for which they received money from her Department in 2016; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22085/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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There is a capital underspend of approximately €7 million or 34% against profile within my Department's Vote for the year to 30th April 2017. The underspend has primarily occurred because of timing issues in relation to the quarterly drawdown of funding by bodies and institutions under the aegis of my Department and also some delays in the drawdown of funding in relation to a number of schemes and projects across my Department's programme areas. In terms of capital carryover, provision is made in the Revised Estimates Volume for the carryover of unspent capital funding from the previous year for expenditure on priority capital programmes, subject to a Ministerial Order being made by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform before 31st March in the year of carryover. The amount of capital funding carried over into 2017 for my Department was €13.548 million. Since the making of the relevant Order by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform on the 6th March 2017, expenditure totalling just over €2.1 million has been incurred from the carryover. No expenditure could be incurred against capital carryover prior to the 6th March 2017.

My Department continues to engage closely with Local Authorities to ensure that all allocated funding is spent promptly and in accordance with project proposals and the provisions of the Public Spending Code. My officials are continuing to impress on all Local Authorities the need to have their projects completed as soon as possible. In this context, satisfactory progress in relation to projects under the 2016 schemes will be an important consideration in any 2017 funding decisions.

Expenditure across all programme areas within my Department's Vote will continue to be carefully monitored throughout the year to ensure the best use of available financial resources.