Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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423. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development if the capital funding prepaid by his Department in 2016, 2017 and 2018 to local authorities has not been spent by the respective local authorities; the amount involved by local authority and year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28854/19]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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My Department provided advance payments to Local Authorities in 2016, 2017 and 2018 under various schemes, including the Town and Village Renewal Scheme, the Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme (ORIS), REDZ, CLÁR and the Local Improvement Scheme.

In each case, specific conditions were attached to the payments made under each scheme.  For example, the 2017 Town and Village, ORIS and CLÁR schemes allowed Local Authorities to draw down 50% of their allocation under the relevant scheme when a minimum of 20% of the total project cost had been spent.  The balance of the allocation was to be paid on completion of the project, based on expenditure actually incurred. 

Under the 2017 LIS scheme, for instance, advance payments were made to the Local Authorities once they confirmed that they had completed 50% or more of their scheduled works, and that all scheduled works would be substantially completed before the end of December 2017.

This approach of a staged payments process, recognised that Local Authorities were being asked to deliver a number of schemes consecutively, for which they were also required to provide match funding.

With the exception of 2016 when full allocations were paid in advance to Local Authorities, it is not practical to determine the amount of advance payments which have not been spent at a point in time.  This is because Local Authorities incur expenditure on an on-going basis and final expenditure returns are only submitted to my Department when projects are completed.

However, on the basis of overall expenditure returns received by my Department, it appears that the majority of Local Authorities have completed the works funded from the 2016, 2017 and 2018 advance payments.  

With regard to 2016, the most up to date information available to the Department suggests that €2.39 million remains unspent.  The breakdown of this figure is provided on the following table.  These figures are provisional and my officials are in the process of verifying them with a view to recouping the underspends from future payments due to the Local Authorities in question. 

Similarly, my Department is following up with the Local Authorities in respect of expenditure on projects approved in 2017 and 2018.