Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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405. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will provide details on how the capital carryover from the 2022 housing budget has been allocated for 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24244/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Gross Total allocations for my Department in the years 2022 to 2023 are set out in the Revised Estimates for Public Services published by the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (DPENDR) and are available at gov.ie - The Revised Estimates Volumes for the Public Service (www.gov.ie)

Under Section 91 of the Finance Act, 2004, all or part of any unspent appropriations for capital supply services may be carried over for spending in the following year. This provides for the carryover of up to 10% of the REV allocation (Capital) from one year to the next. This must be expended in the following year- i.e. it is not permissible to further defer any surplus.

Continued impact of Covid-19 on the construction sector, compounded by supply chain issues and then in early 2022 the onset of war in Ukraine with resulting further detrimental impact for the sector had a substantial impact on drawdown of capital investment for the programme areas identified back in 2021. Capital expenditure in 2022 was lower than profiled resulting in surplus balances on the capital elements of Programmes A (Housing), B (Water), D (Planning) and F (Heritage).

Despite the very challenging context my Department continued to engage proactively on a range of measures to manage, mitigate and expedite where possible throughout 2022. In the case of significant capital projects, it is important to note that the aforementioned impacts push a project out rather than cancelling it and therefore Capital Carryover ensures that where delivery arises beyond the calendar year in which initially anticipated, the capital can transfer to meet the commitment up to a maximum of 10%. My Department sought and obtained approval to carry the maximum permissible limit into 2023, some €340m. The below table sets out the Capital Carryover allocations for Vote 34 in 2023: