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Departmental Expenditure.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 October 2008

Tuesday, 21 October 2008

Questions (126)

Joe McHugh

Question:

215 Deputy Joe McHugh asked the Minister for Finance the amount of money spent on capital investment by his Department for each year since 1997 in each of the 26 counties. [35393/08]

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Written answers

Much of the capital expenditure from my Department's vote is IT related rather than geographically specific and accordingly it is not possible to account for all capital expenditure from my Department's vote on a county by county basis. Such expenditure includes e-procurement development, grants under the information society fund, capital grants in aid to the Institute of Public Administration and the Economic and Social research institute.

Capital grants in aid were made from my Department's vote to Ordnance Survey Ireland of €1.978m in 2002, €1.399m in 2003, €1.8m in 2005 and €1m in 2006. Responsibility for Ordnance Survey Ireland moved to the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources in 2007.

The Peace and Northern Ireland Interreg programmes, which are administered by the Special EU Programmes Body, expend capital amounts from my Department's vote on both sides of the border. That office does not compile information on capital expenditure on a county by county basis. The following table sets out the capital outturn for Vote 6 (Office of the Minister for Finance) for each year since 1997 (including 2008 year to date).

Vote 6

North/South Capital Expenditure

Civil Service Childcare Initiative Capital Expenditure

Other Capital Expenditure

Total Capital Expenditure

€,000

€,000

€,000

€,000

1997

0

0

216

216

1998

0

0

207

207

1999

0

0

1,687

1,687

2000

0

0

9,920

9,920

2001

1,762

0

9,073

10,835

2002

963

3,228

8,312

12,503

2003

998

963

4,919

6,880

2004

10,958

207

2,121

13,286

2005

822

1,120

6,815

8,757

2006

4,863

1,825

1,250

7,938

2007

3,035

1,453

181

4,669

2008 (YTD)

2,734

1,800

1,755

6,289

In addition, the Civil Service Childcare Initiative which is funded from the Department's vote has commissioned the building of a number of crèches across the State since 2002. The following table sets out capital expenditure by that programme on a county by county basis in the relevant period.

Civil Service Childcare Initiative: Capital investment for each year since 1997 by county €,000

County

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

Clare

1,064

310

90

47

16

Cork

143

450

1,471

1,357

1,782

Dublin

200

2

54

18

Kildare

52

10

43

Sligo

895

341

62

250

47

36

Westmeath

1,069

311

2

275

197

I have been advised by the Revenue Commissioners that the only capital expenditure by Revenue is on computer capital. The spending over the last 10 years is set out in the following table.

Office of the Revenue Commissioners: Capital Expenditure by Year

Year

(€000s)

1997

0

1998

12,972

1999

11,824

2000

12,149

2001

11,738

2002

9,428

2003

7,604

2004

8,786

2005

8,662

2006

10,642

2007

11,263

2008 (YTD)

5,224

Computer capital expenditure covers, in addition to the normal replenishment programme (i.e. where older equipment is no longer capable of running today's business applications or where maintenance costs have become excessive), the acquisition of further hardware and software licences to facilitate business growth, develop new applications and systems which, are required to support Revenue's business requirements. Most of the equipment and software is based in the primary Revenue computer centre and the backup computer centre, both of which are located in Dublin. The remaining equipment comprising of mainly PCs and associated software is installed in Revenue offices throughout the country.

The Valuation Office, the Commission for Public Service Appointment, the Office of the Ombudsman, the Office of the Comptroller & Auditor General, the State Laboratory and the Public Appointments Service fall under the aegis of my Department. In the period in question they had either no capital expenditure or very small capital subheads from which there was no geographically specific expenditure.

The following table sets out total capital expenditure by the Office of Public Works from its vote. However, in the time available to answer the question, the Office of Public Works was unable to compile the information on a county by county basis. The information will be compiled and forwarded by that Office to the Deputy as soon as possible.

Office of Public Works: Capital expenditure

Year

€,000

1997

54,317

1998

145,807

1999

178,751

2000

292,411

2001

247,144

2002

220,477

2003

239,641

2004

217,352

2005

164,608

2006

277,634

2007

340,347

2008

249,451

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