Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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383. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on the fact that the November 2017 Exchequer returns show that his Department was running €129 million behind profile in gross voted expenditure for the first 11 months of 2017. [52774/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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A profile of projected expenditure on a monthly basis is drawn up at the beginning of each year to anticipate the Department’s funding requirements and facilitate financial management over the course of the year. The timing of expenditure is difficult to forecast and may vary significantly during the year for a variety of reasons, such as the level of payments under demand led multi-year schemes, a different level of participation in some schemes than anticipated, the pattern of drawdown of Grants by State bodies, the levels of disease incidences and payment of compensation, etc.

As mentioned by the Deputy, the Department’s expenditure at the end of November was behind profile by €128.5m, of which €87.6m is current and €40.9 is capital. Some of this amount arises in budget lines such as pay, research and the sheep welfare scheme where we are now certain the full allocation will not be required this year. In other cases some of the expenditure profiled for earlier months, though delayed, may arise before the year end.

Earlier this month I sought and received permission from the Dail via the supplementary estimates process to reallocate funds from some areas where savings were certain to provide funding  for existing schemes such as GLAS and ANCs and new initiatives particularly in relation to Brexit and  the World Food Programme. Most of this extra expenditure has not yet taken place so it is not reflected in the end of November figures.  

The Department’s staff are fully focussed on ensuring that scheme payments are made to eligible recipients in all schemes and in this regard the submission of Nutrient Management Plans will be an important factor in maximising payments for GLAS in 2018, which is the scheme with the most significant amount of funding yet to be paid.