Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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143. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the reason for the €9 million capital underspend in her Department as outlined in the Fiscal Monitor for December 2017; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2494/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The 2017 Revised Estimates Volume capital allocation for my Department was €555 million. The provisional outturn of capital expenditure was €546.53 million, leaving some €8.47 million in capital monies remaining. Of this, €8 million was converted to current moneys and expended by year end as part of the Department’s contribution to the new Brexit Loan Scheme. This was done through a technical Supplementary Estimate approved by the Houses of the Oireachtas in December 2017.

The Supplementary Estimate contained a total package of €40 million in current and capital monies being redistributed from already voted monies across my Department’s Vote last year.  This funding package was as follows:

- €14 million in current monies to provide towards the new Brexit Loan Scheme to SMEs (Small & Medium Enterprises) impacted by Brexit.

- An additional €12 million in capital monies to pay off some of the remaining commitments under Cycle 5 of the Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions.

- An additional €10.6 million in capital monies being provided through Science Foundation Ireland to provide for cutting-edge research equipment.

- An additional €2.4 million in capital monies to the Tyndall National Institute, Cork for its research facilities; and

- An additional €1 million in capital monies to further support Irish companies participation in the European Space Agency programmes.

The funding capacity for the technical Supplementary Estimate arose from a combination of Capital and Current underspends arising across my Department’s Vote and additional own resource income (ORI) being generated as follows:

- An additional €13 million in ORI being generated through Enterprise Ireland (EI). EI is obliged to expend ORI first before drawing down exchequer funds and this therefore provided €13 million in exchequer capital to be contributed to the Supplementary Estimate.

- €12 million remaining unspent as part of Enterprise Ireland’s 2017 Regional Funding plans.

- €5 million in a combination of other Enterprise Ireland grant funded programmes which had not been claimed yet by client companies.

- €3 million in relation to IDAs Regional Property Programme due to some delays on a number of projects across the country. This is not untypical given the nature of property investments which typically involve planning requirements, contractual issues, adverse weather conditions and tendering and procurement timelines.

- €1 million in relation to the Interreg Programme as a consequence of delayed commencement of the programme due to UKs Brexit vote in 2016.

- €3 million in Pay underspends across the Department and some of its Offices due to staff vacancies and some delays in recruitment.

- €3 million in Non-pay underspends across the Department and some of its Offices for a variety of reasons including staff vacancies, reduced Legal Fees expenditure and some delays on accommodation related projects.  

It is important to note that good corporate governance procedures and the public financial rules means that Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland will ensure payments of exchequer monies, be they on capital grants or for property solutions, will be on foot of presentation of matured liabilities or evidence that the terms and conditions of the grant awards has been met and requests for funding being supplied by client companies.