Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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227. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason for the €19 million in capital under-expenditure in his Department, as outlined in the fiscal monitor for December 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2490/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Taking account of the funds carried forward from 2016, €259.7m was available for capital expenditure by my Department in 2017.   The capital expenditure in 2017 was €219.3m which is the highest level of capital expenditure by my Department since 2010. When the €23.8m of funds to be carried from 2017 into 2018 are taken into account, this leaves an amount of €16.7m.

The areas where capital expenditure was lower than allocated were in Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Schemes, Afforestation, Forestry Development, Bord Iascaigh Mhara, Organic Sector Development and the Remediation of Haulbowline Island.

It should be remembered that TAMs, Afforestation, Forestry Development, Bord Iascaigh Mhara capital are demand-led schemes and for these, a lower level of applications for payment were received than projected  In the case of the Remediation of Haulbowline Island, the main remediation work started later in the year than expected so the full allocation was not expended.