Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

251. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on the fact that the December 2017 exchequer returns show that his department ran €78 million behind profile in gross voted expenditure for 2017. [2670/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

A total of €80.2m of my Department’s 2017 allocation was not expended, which comprised of almost €63m of the current allocation and €16.7m of the capital with a further €23.8m of capital expenditure being carried over into 2018.  Total expenditure  by my  Department  in 2017 was €1,387m which is the highest level of expenditure since 2011. This is comprised of current spend at €1,167m which was €81m (7%) higher than 2016 and capital expenditure of over €219m, €48m ahead of 2016 which was at its highest level since 2010. I am pleased that the expenditure reflects a very substantial increase in our spending on RDP schemes which reached almost €540m in 2017 compared to €425m in 2016.

Of the €63m of the unspent allocation on the current side the largest gaps compared to estimate  were in GLAS and Knowledge Transfer which together account for just over €42m. Under GLAS, payments reached about 38,000 applicants with the remaining applications still being processed. For Knowledge Transfer the €9m underspend is largely due to slower than anticipated return of payment acknowledgements which must be received from farmers before facilitators are paid. There is also a gap of more than €5m on Food Safety/Animal Health & Welfare & Plant Health due to our relatively low instance of disease and just over €4m across the Seafood Programme  and €3m on our Administrative budget.

The items 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 can be noted that TAMS expenditure at €31m is about €24m more than 2016.