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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 21 Jan 2016

Vol. 903 No. 3

Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2016: Motion

I move:

That Dáil Éireann approves the following Order in draft:

Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2016,

copies of which have been laid in draft form before Dáil Éireann on 15th January, 2016.

The ministerial order, which is before Dáil Éireann, is a technical instrument. Its purpose is to allow the Dáil to approve formally the expenditure by Departments and agencies in the current financial year of capital moneys carried over from the previous year. The multi-annual system is designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the management by Departments and agencies of capital programmes and projects.

It recognises the difficulties inherent in the planning and profiling of capital expenditure and acknowledges that, for a myriad of reasons, capital projects may be subject to delays. The carryover facility allows for a portion of unspent moneys, which would have been lost to the capital programmes and projects concerned under the annual system of allocating capital, to be made available for spending on programme priorities in the subsequent year.

As I said, this is a technical exercise. The Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866, generally requires the surrender of unspent Exchequer moneys to the Central Fund at the end of each financial year. However, section 91 of the Finance Act 2004, which gives legal effect to capital carryover, allows the carryover of unspent voted Exchequer capital to the following year of up to 10% of capital by Vote, by deferring this surrender requirement, subject to certain conditions.

Among those conditions are that the amounts of capital carried over by each Vote be specified in the annual Appropriation Act of the year from which the carryover is proposed. The actual decision in principle on the amounts of carryover by Vote is therefore made in the Appropriation Act, which we debated last month. The Dáil again has the opportunity to endorse the amounts in its decision on the Revised Estimates Volume which shows the capital carryover amounts separately in the relevant Votes.

The carryover amounts provided for in the Appropriation Act are required to be confirmed in an order to be made by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform by 31 March of the following year, after approval of the order by the Dáil, to allow expenditure to take place. The order sets out the amounts by subhead consistent with the amount by Vote specified in the Appropriation Act. Capital carryover within a Vote does not have to be spent on the same subhead or programme where the saving occurred. It may be spent on a different programme depending on progress and priorities.

The order we are discussing today sets out where Departments and agencies propose to spend the capital carryover amounts specified by Vote in the Appropriation Act 2015. The total amount proposed in the draft order for 2016 is €111.8 million or 2.9% of the 2015 expected outturn. The total 2016 gross Exchequer capital provision allocated in budget 2016 amounts to €3.8 billion. The capital carryover of €111.8 million will bring the total Exchequer capital available for spending in 2016 to over €3.9 billion, and allow projects to proceed in a number of Departments.

Departments and agencies have delegated responsibility to manage their capital programmes and projects within the terms of the delegated capital sanction as set down by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The availability of these capital carryover amounts in 2016 will assist them within this framework in tackling economic and social infrastructural priorities in their respective areas.

I commend the order to the House, as it will allow Departments and agencies to get on with the business of spending capital that the House has already allocated to deliver much-needed projects.

I welcome the Government's U-turn in allowing this debate today. Earlier in the week, the Government published a schedule indicating that this would be taken without debate. I issued a press release at that time stating that the practice for the past ten years has been to refer it to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform for a detailed discussion on the issues after which it should come back to the Dáil for a final vote.

However, on this occasion the Government intended not only to prevent the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform from discussing the details of it, but it also intended preventing the Oireachtas from discussing the matter. The Minister of State seems amused, but the schedule of business the Government published on Tuesday and Wednesday had this without debate.

I always welcome debate.

That is all right, the Minister of State is busy on other matters. I am pleased that the Government last night agreed to our Whip's request that we would have a short debate.

Everyone accepts the principle of what is involved. The speech the Minister of State, Deputy Harris, just read out is the greatest piece of whitewash I have ever seen from the Government. What is at issue today is the carry-forward of €111.768 million of unspent money. He made no reference whatever to why or in what areas this unspent money occurred. There is no time for questions and answers. It is a technical motion outlining what happened under the old legislation. He did everything but refer to the reason for the carryover.

We accept that such a carryover happens. However, the Government is seeking approval for €111.768 million of unspent capital money to be carried forward into 2016. Shockingly, there is an underspend of €41.078 million by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Kelly, primarily on housing. Is it any wonder that there is a housing and homeless crisis when after all that happened last year with homelessness and people dying on the streets of the capital city, he was given €41 million and could not spend it on the housing programme? Shame on the Minister and shame on the Government for allowing that to happen. It is no wonder we have a housing crisis.

There was €7 million unspent on flood-risk management by the Office of Public Works, for which the Minister of State, Deputy Harris, has responsibility. There was a further €7 million unspent on the current side, giving a total underspend last year of €14 million on top of the €20 million unspent the previous year. In the past two years the Dáil has voted €34 million that the Minister of State has not spent. It is no wonder that we have a flooding crisis. Of course the Minister of State did not refer to that.

No, I do not agree with it.

There is €6.644 million unspent by the Garda Síochána on its capital programme. It is no wonder that we have a crime issue when voted money from this House is not being utilised.

I welcome this short debate in order to put those matters on the public record because that is the information the Minister of State chose not to mention. That is why we are here. We agree with that money being spent in 2016 - we have always supported that, but my principal objection was to a guillotine this motion without any debate.

I will be amused to listen to Sinn Féin's contribution on the issue. As the Minister of State rightly said, the list for each Department was published in Schedule 2 of the Appropriation Act 2015 which we debated and on which I called a vote. We voted against the Appropriation Bill 2015 in the Dáil before Christmas because we did not agree with the Government's choices of expenditure during the year. However, Sinn Féin was happy to vote with the Government on that and to vote for the deferred surrender of this €111 million on that occasion. I cannot see how it will have any problems with it today, given that Sinn Féin voted for this deferred surrender in the week before Christmas. I will listen with interest to see what its Members say today having done something different then.

I am moved that the Deputy, it seems, is hanging on my every word. I can assure Members that is a very rare occurrence in this Chamber and beyond, let it be said.

We have no issue with the carryover of moneys that need to be spent and invested. It is as simple as that. We spend much of the time in the cut and thrust of political debate legitimately highlighting those areas that are screaming for further investment, whether that is capital investment or increased current spending. The Deputy will not be surprised that I would not mindlessly oppose the Government for the purposes of opposition, knowing full well that these areas are screaming out for investment.

I note from the Minister of State's contribution that the order identifies the areas where it is proposed to spend these moneys and make the investments. I would have liked to seen from whence the underspend originated. I hope the Minister of State is not presenting the figures to us in this manner to take the bad look away from certain things. Certainly it is very necessary for the €7 million for flood risk management to be invested, but we know that moneys that had been earmarked have not been spent at the scheduled rate. While I understand there are reasons for it, above all else I understand the misery in recent times of so many families and communities. This money needs to be invested.

I note that in the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, our friend, the Minister, Deputy Kelly, had an underspend of over €41 million. It is now proposed to spend that on the housing programme. Bravo for that; it is not before time. We know that there has been underinvestment and more than a reluctance on the part of central Government to come up trumps for local authorities and to invest in social and affordable housing. I read this figure as symptomatic of the Government's approach.

I note that there is more than €6 million for the Department of the Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

There is a proposition for cultural infrastructure and development in the decade of centenaries commemorating 1912 to 1922, the centrepiece of which is 1916.

Since we have this €6.158 million, I suggest the Government, or the incoming Government, gets its act together and moves beyond the narrow definition of the national monument on Moore Street. I suggest the Government moves to create a proper commemorative revolutionary quarter, encompassing the terrace and based from the GPO back as far as Parnell Square. That would be a far more compelling development of that part of the city, which I happen to represent. It makes cultural sense. Kilmainham Gaol is now a mecca for tourists, visitors, historians and the curious alike, despite the fact that back in the day, the State would have been quite happy to see that go. Such a quarter in the heart of Dublin's north inner city would be an incredible tourist draw. It would also be a massive economic driver for that part of the city which, historically, at least in parts, has been impoverished going back a century. I hope the Minister of State, Deputy Simon Harris, will take on board what I said. I think he is a sensible individual, more sensible than many of his colleagues. As he is also a lot younger than many of us in this Chamber, I hope he would have an open mind in respect of what I am proposing. It simply makes sense.

This is a technical instrument which reflects the ebb and flow, the rhythm, or lack thereof, of Government investment and spending. As for Deputy Sean Fleming and Fianna Fáil, I will not oppose the carryover of much-needed resources to be invested in critical infrastructure. Why on earth would I or Sinn Féin do that?

Question put and agreed to.
Sitting suspended at 1.33 p.m. and resumed at 1.38 p.m.
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