The €23million in capital expenditure referred to in the Deputy’s question represents the difference between the capital expenditure from my Department’s Vote as reported in the End November Expenditure Return published by the Minister for Finance and the amount of capital expenditure originally profiled for that period at the beginning of the year. In this regard, as part of assisting the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform’s oversight of exchequer expenditure, Government Departments, including my own Department, are required to prepare a monthly profile of expected expenditure, including capital expenditure, from their Votes at the beginning of each year. It is the case that as the financial year progresses there can be a number of reasons why monthly expenditure may deviate from the initial monthly profile, resulting in capital underspends or overspends at the end of a particular month.
Capital expenditure from my Department’s Vote is essentially expended by the enterprise development agencies such as IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and Science Foundation as well as the County Enterprise Boards. Typically this funding is by way of grant provision to private industry and to the higher education institutions. The drawdown of exchequer financial support by companies or other bodies, such as the higher education institutions, is demand-led and funding is provided on the basis of matured liabilities. It will be appreciated, therefore, that such funding provision can only take place if the entity in question has progressed a given project in line with the agreement entered into with the State. In addition, there can also be factors such as timing issues relating to the finalisation of legal agreements or the securing of matching private funding by the successful grant applicant to ensure eligibility to drawdown the grant. Given these factors, it is important to point out that the €23 million referred to by the Deputy represents just 4.7% of the overall Departmental capital budget for 2013.
Insofar as 2012 situation is concerned, the total Government capital carryover of €107.2 million referred to by the Deputy included an amount of €25 million in capital carryover in respect of my Department’s Vote. I would point out that as part of the conditions associated with any annual capital carryover provision, a Ministerial order approved and signed by the Minister of Public Expenditure and Reform, requires that carryover money must be expended in the early part of the following financial year to support on-going activity. Such carryover provision must be exhausted prior to expending any of the capital funding provision approved in the Vote allocation as published on Budget Day.
As regards the Deputy’s request for a breakdown of capital projects in this area, it is the case that as there can be several thousand live grant awards and initiatives being supported across the enterprise agencies at any particular point in time, it would not be feasible to provide the Deputy with specific details regarding the status of projects per profiled expenditure. The capital expenditure programme overseen by my Department is undoubtedly a key element in supporting Ireland’s jobs, enterprise and research activities. The total capital allocation of €479.5m for 2013, which includes the aforementioned €25m in carryover from 2012, represents a very significant and vital stimulus in the on-going and increasingly successful challenge of promoting enterprise and creating jobs for our citizens.
