Dail Éireann · 2020-07-21
Part of Priority Questions
3 contributions · 2 speakers · 429 words
13. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the agreed capital ceilings for each Department in tabular form; if there have been changes in respect of committed and pre-committed expenditure as a result of the Covid-19 crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16634/20]
Hence, I propose to answer this question on the basis of the capital allocations listed in the Revised Estimates Volume published on 19 December 2019, which set out capital expenditure allocations of €8.166 billion for 2020. The capital allocations were considered to be sufficient to meet the commitments of Departments at that point.
The following table lists the original departmental Estimates alongside their revised allocations to reflect the need to fund projects and programmes to alleviate the impact of Covid-19 on our society. It should also be noted that the allocations shown in the table will be further updated, in the context of the restated Revised Estimates which will be presented in the autumn in line with the new departmental structures and these will reflect the additional capital funding that is being made available as part of the July stimulus measures.
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Will the Minister provide the agreed capital ceilings for each Department in tabular form and confirm if there have been changes in respect of committed and pre-committed expenditure as a result of the Covid-19 crisis?
As the Deputy will be aware, departmental structures are currently being revised. Work on putting the new structures in place is being implemented and involves the drafting of transfer of function orders. It is expected that this work will be completed in the coming weeks. In addition, legislation approved by the Government on 13 July will come before the House later this week. The purpose of this legislation is to establish the new Department of higher education research, innovation and science.
Hence, I propose to answer this question on the basis of the capital allocations listed in the Revised Estimates Volume published on 19 December 2019, which set out capital expenditure allocations of €8.166 billion for 2020. The capital allocations were considered to be sufficient to meet the commitments of Departments at that point.
The following table lists the original departmental Estimates alongside their revised allocations to reflect the need to fund projects and programmes to alleviate the impact of Covid-19 on our society. It should also be noted that the allocations shown in the table will be further updated, in the context of the restated Revised Estimates which will be presented in the autumn in line with the new departmental structures and these will reflect the additional capital funding that is being made available as part of the July stimulus measures. The table shows the original allocations of €8.166 billion and the additional allocation of €742 million, which brings the total of revised allocations to €8.908 billion.
Capital Expenditure Allocations
I shall outline some of the issues that led to this growth. The Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine received an additional €20.4 million for a number of different measures. The largest element of the increase was for the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, which received nearly €500 million. This funded the sustaining enterprise fund operated by IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland. There was €250 million for the restart grant scheme. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs received €14 million for capital grants. A total of €220 million for additional capital funding was allocated to the Department of Health for infrastructure and capacity expansion, including ICT investment. These are the overall numbers.
There are no further questions on that. I had just wanted to get those figures. We will read the full detail in the written reply. I thank the Minister.