Duncan Smith
Question:11. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for Transport his views on the reported underspend by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30223/23]
View answerThursday, 22 June 2023
Questions (11, 18, 20)
Patricia Ryan
Question:18. Deputy Patricia Ryan asked the Minister for Transport if he can explain the reason that, despite his Department having an underspend of €97 million on transport and infrastructure, this Deputy has been informed by Kildare County Council that there "are no funds" to repair and resurface dangerously deteriorated sections of road in Kildare South; when, if ever, he intends to allocate these funds to already financially pressed local authorities to be used, or if those funds have or are intended to be re-allocated for other purposes; and if so, what purposes. [30211/23]
View answer
Matt Shanahan
Question:20. Deputy Matt Shanahan asked the Minister for Transport if he will clarify how his Department is carrying a nearly €100 million underspend in the first three months of the year; if there have been projects postponed or delayed which has led to the underspend; if so, if he will list those projects affected; if he will outline how he and his Department plan to address the situation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29769/23]
View answerOral answers (8 contributions)
When receiving the freedom of Dublin last night, the environmentalist, my namesake Duncan Stewart said we are nowhere near making our 51% target in emissions reductions. Last week, we heard the Department had underspent to the tune of €200 million for the first quarter. We need capital projects to be delivered. Will the Minister of State comment on this?
I propose to take Questions Nos. 11, 18 and 20 together. An underspend for quarter 1 is quite normal and is largely related to the timing of expenditure within the year. It is anticipated that all spending allocations for capital projects will be used by the end of the year.
The first quarter underspend is primarily in four areas: greenways, EV grant schemes and infrastructure, public transport investment and national roads. Expenditure of €6.47 million was profiled for greenways in the first quarter by TII and €0.291 million drawn down. The first quarter underspend is partly due to the timing of claims. In addition, a number of schemes are behind on anticipated spend profiles, including Athlone Bridge, Turraun to Shannon Harbour and the south-east greenway. It is expected that expenditure will increase as the year progresses and any underspend at year end will be absorbed by the strong level of demand under the active travel cycling and walking programme.
For EV grants and infrastructure, €26.171 million was profiled and €16.442 million drawn down by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI. The SEAI is reporting good levels of demand for the EV grant scheme and it is not expected that there will be a significant underspend on the EV grants scheme or on EV infrastructure by year end.
On heavy rail and public transport investment, €125.26 million was profiled and €73.323 million was drawn down. The reasons for the first quarter underspend included assessment of charging infrastructure for the new DART+ fleet, the timing of payments for delivery of the remaining intercity rail cars; the timing of the procurement process for the client partner contract for MetroLink; in the BusConnects depot electrification programme; delays in the planning approval process for four of the BusConnects Dublin core bus corridors and in fleet acquisition for Dublin Bus and regional fleets. A modest forecast underspend in public transport will be absorbed in heavy rail investment.
In national roads investment, €42.537 million was profiled and €14.27 million drawn down. At the start of the year, TII’s reserves for roads projects stood at €89.6 million, compared to the €20 million reserve level recommended by its board. The reason for the underspend is due to TII using excess reserves in the first quarter. TII had factored the reserves into its expenditure plans for 2023 and expects expenditure to return to profile as the year progresses.
I will have to ask the Minister of State to finish there.
My concern is that perhaps we should be broadening what could be included in the capital spend. The earlier question spoke about expanding a rail network in the south east and the south-east connectivity. We have a really good campaign, South East on Track, for a line which begins in Rosslare, moves on to Waterford and moves up to Limerick. As Deputy Ó Cathasaigh said, we could have really good connectivity between our third and fifth cities and with minor upgrades of the line between Waterford and Limerick, it would be 1 hour 50 minutes. There are other areas that could come under capital expenditure that could be done with a quick spend that would make a real impact. Real-time passenger information notifications are becoming a real bad-news story. We really need to put work into those. Disability and accessibility, particularly on our rail services, is something that could be a quick fix and should be included in capital expenditure. We would be able to spend that money early in the year and it would have a huge difference.
I thank the Minister of State for his response but I am concerned that the local authority in Kildare is telling me it cannot fix basic things on roads. I am not talking about pot holes. I am talking about subsidence on the sides of roads and so on. Is it possible something can be done about this? Putting a cone on the side of a road and telling people to drive around it is not substantial. We end up having to call out emergency services to pull people out of the side of the road. Can something be done around that, please?
On the underspend, how much of the cost is contracted and how much of it is in terms of profile? Is some of the difficulty here related to contracted price, in terms of evaluated prices moving on?
BusConnects expenditure was mentioned earlier. There is ongoing discussion in Waterford about BusConnects. There is a proposal to completely change the route of a Waterford to Tramore bus route to turn it back on itself and change the direction of flow, which will require a complete new investment in bus infrastructure. It is very hard to understand the logic behind some of that. We need some greater transparency in some of the projects that have been held up or are behind profile.
What was the carry forward or underspend of the Department last year? Does the Minister of State agree that if one is going to reallocate money, one must do it in July. Doing it in September, October, November is a total waste of time; it is too late.
I thank everyone for their input. Deputy Duncan Smith referred to a number of projects for which he advocates. This requires forensic assessment and is getting that and scrutiny in the Department. We will examine the second quarter and the projections there.
On Deputy Ó Cuív's point, if repurposing is going to happen, it will have to happen in early autumn or late summer in order that the capital can be spent. Decisions being made in November or December does not have the same effect.
As regards Deputy Patricia Ryan's point, we have had a lot of feedback across the country relating to our increasing the funding for local and regional roads this year. There is ongoing engagement on that, and the maintenance and renewal process is very important.
To Deputy Shanahan's point, there will be ongoing engagement in Waterford on the BusConnects plan there, and the NTA will engage with all the public representatives on that.