Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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492. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the specific reason for the underspend in gross voted expenditure of €17 million as outlined in appendix V of the June 2018 fiscal monitor; the specific projects that have an underspend; the value of the underspend on each project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31313/18]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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Deputy, I wish to refer  to your question regarding the specific reason for the underspend in gross voted expenditure of €17 million as outlined in Appendix V of the June 2018 Fiscal Monitor. The figure the Deputy refers to is the variance in gross voted capital spend across my Vote.

My Department has a large number of capital projects. Some of these projects are spending ahead of target and others are slightly behind target at this time. All of the Department's expenditure is monitored on an ongoing basis. Due to various issues, mainly due to timing of drawdowns on the various projects, the net effect is that the Department as a whole shows a small capital underspend at present, of the order of 4% against profile.

Discussions with my officials who manage these projects lead me to believe that our spend will be fully utilised by year-end.