Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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305. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the underspend of his Department for 2021; the percentage of underspend that will be carried over to 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3455/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The table below sets out the Gross allocation and expenditure for my Department (Vote 34) in 2021.

The total surplus for 2021 was therefore €388.3m which was composed of 3 parts:

- Current - €25.1m

- Capital - €289.72m (of which €275.8m to be deferred to 2022)

- Capital deferred from 2020 - €73.5m

Under Section 91 of the Finance Act 2004, all or part of any unspent appropriations for capital supply services may be carried over for spend in the following year. This must be expended in the following year- i.e. it is not permissible to further defer any surplus. Therefore the total Capital surplus that could have been brought forward into 2022 was €289.72m, however, deferred surrender is limited to 10% of the total Capital allocation. This Department sought to carry the maximum permissible limit, some €275.8m. This equates to 95% of the surplus Capital which was available (€289.72m).

Construction, and consequently expenditure on construction related activities, were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the very challenging context my Department engaged proactively on a range of measures to manage, mitigate and expedite where possible throughout 2021.

In addition to deferred surrender, funding was provided towards the local government rates waiver and additional current funding to Irish Water.