Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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272. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the reason for the €6 million in capital underspend in his Department as outlined in the fiscal monitor for December 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2497/18]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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The gross total  allocation for my Department in the Revised Estimates 2017 was €1.8bn. This is made up of €680m Current and €1,130m Capital. There was capital carryover from 2016 of €10.96m. We received a Technical Supplementary Estimate of €12.5m and had a carryover to 2018 of 10.95m.  Apart from the carryover of €10.95m to 2018 for specific projects, the revised outturn is €99.8% of the budget.

Capital investment was carried out to support many infrastructural projects during the year. Some examples  are:

Roads:

- M17/M18 Gort to Tuam –completed and opened to traffic in September 2017

- Work has started on the M7 Naas bypass upgrade and the Sallins Bypass

Public Transport:

- Luas Cross City was completed and commenced passenger services on 9^thDecember 2017.

Sustainable Transport:

- The implementation of “Cycle Right” training commenced in January 2017 and continued throughout 2017 with the Department providing funding to ensure over 12,000 schoolchildren availed of the training during the course of the year.

Sports :

- The development of 1km and 2km exercise and jogging/walking trails within the Sport Ireland National Sports Campus were completed during 2017 and came into use for members of the public and staff of organisations based on the Sport Ireland National Sports Campus.

Tourism:

Tourism projects which were completed in 2017 included:

- Medieval Mile Museum Kilkenny

- Newly Refurbished Historic Rooms, Killarney House  Kerry

- Lusitania Memorial Garden, Old Head of KinsaleCork

- Powerscourt Estate Audio GuidesWicklow

Regional Airports:

- investment in safety and security enhancements in the regional airports

The figure the Deputy is referring to is a provisional outturn for December 2017. Our analysis following the end of 2017 suggests that apart from our capital carryover for use on specific projects in early 2018,  our capital expenditure in 2017 was almost entirely used on investing in necessary infrastructure. Although accounts have yet to be audited our analysis shows the underspend is in fact a lot less than €0.5 million on a capital budget of €1,130 million and an overall Budget of €1,800 million.