Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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209. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the total capital funding provided for his Department in 2022, broken down by programme; the expenditure profile at the end of September 2022 on each programme; if there is likely to be an underspend in any particular area; the reason for such; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48600/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Deputy, €2.547bn is allocated to the Department of Transport for capital funding in 2022. Please see, set out below, the total funding for the Department in 2022 and the expenditure profile for each programme at the end of September, setting out the status of any underspends.

The underspends for the year to date are outlined and broken down by subhead below.

Carbon Reduction

B3.2 LEV Grants:

The LEV Grants provide funding towards a number of electric vehicle purchase grants, which are demand led. Expenditure is close to profile. Any underspend which emerges will be carried into 2023, subject to DPER sanction, as contractually committed expenditure.

B3.2 LEV Infrastructure:

The drawdown of funding for infrastructure is ahead of profile. At this point, it is not expected that an underspend will arise for 2022.

Public Transport

B.4 Public Service Provision Payment:

The NTA are continuing to draw down the Public Service Obligation (PSO) capital funding on a monthly basis in line with the monthly CIE Operator Claims. The €18m will be fully drawn down by the end of 2022.

B5.1 Heavy Rail Safety and Development:

The underspend is predominantly due to the reduction in spend on DART+ Fleet as a result of the renegotiation of the timing of milestone payments, with a significant downpayment made to Alstom in December 2021, originally scheduled for 2022. There is also a reduction in expenditure on new intercity railcars due to an updated delivery schedule of 2023 for the majority of railcars.

B5.2 Public Transport Infrastructure:

The underspend is predominantly due to a reduction in spend on Ticketing, Technology & Integration, Support and the Bus Programme. In the case of BusConnects Dublin, there have been delays to the delivery of new fleet, submission of planning applications to An Bord Pleanála, and the rollout of the redesigned network.  €24.52m has been re-allocated to the IMMAC contract.

B.5.3 Accessibility Retrofit Programme:

The Irish Rail Accessibility project is behind Budget due to delays in appointing contractors resulting in a reduced Q2 forecast of c.€1.8m. The Wayfinding Centre Project is also behind Budget due to delays in on-boarding a contractor, who commenced work in March 2022.  The NTTC project is also behind Budget to delays in on boarding a Contractor who commenced work in March 2022.  Spend has been reforecasted for 2022. The Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle project is also behind Budget due to a shortage of new and second-hand cars due to supply chain issues. The remaining accessibility works are ongoing and the objective is to spend the full allocation by year end.

Roads

C3 National Roads – Asset Protection and Renewal:

TII’s expenditure is behind schedule when compared with the profile. However, TII expects to complete a full drawdown of funding by year end.

C.3.2  Construction and Development of National Roads:

Some of the underspend is related to the timing of payments.In relation to significant project delay, a Roadbridge Ltd went into receivership in March, leading to the N5 Ballaghaderreen to Scramoge project being suspended.  As a result, TII re-allocated €47.8m of national roads exchequer funds; €23.35m for roads protection and renewal, €10m as a contingency for inflationary pressures and €14.45m for other programmes. These funding movements will be recorded in the provisional out-turn at year end.

C.3.5 Regional and Local Roads - Asset Protection and Renewal

Local authorities are facing significantly higher contract and material costs due to the impact of cost inflation/supply chain constraints. The extent varies somewhat between regions and the timing of tenders.  The guidance provided to date by the OGP under the terms of the Inflation/ Supply Chain Delay Co-operation Framework has allowed works to continue but it does have programme output/budget implications. 

As regards managing the position, the allocations provided to local authorities for asset and protection works at the start of the year remain unchanged at this point and under the payment system local authorities cannot claim more than their allocation. As a result of the above, an underspend is not expected to arise.

C.3.6  Regional and Local Roads – New Roads/Improvement Works:

The shortfall in expenditure is due largely to the impact of the Roadbridge receivership on the Coonagh to Knockalisheen Distribution Road project and the delayed commencement of the Shannon Crossing, Killaloe Bypass and R494 Upgrade scheme due to the impact of the inflation/supply chain pressures.  Work on that scheme has now commenced.

Aviation expenditure is on profile.

E3 Maritime Administration & IRCG:

The underspend relates to a delay in a building project which should commence in late October.

As can be seen, the underspends identified are due to a wide variety of reasons and are across several subheads. They are being addressed on a suitable case-by-case basis in a manner which can best support delivery of the Department's overall investment objectives for 2022. I will continue to monitor progress on capital expenditure closely between now and year end and my officials and I are actively engaging with the relevant stakeholders to ensure that the capital expenditure allocated is fully utilised as planned, via either re-allocation to subheads which have capacity to bring forward expenditure, or via carryover into 2023 under circumstances where contractually committed expenditure falls into 2023.