Politics

Government departments and State bodies leave €532m in capital allocations unspent

Despite extreme need, Department of Housing fails to use €141 million available to it last year and carries it over into 2024

Sinn Féin's Eoin Ó Broin: 'Minister [for Housing Darragh] O’Brien has failed to spend his full capital allocation every year.' Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

Emmet Malone
Wed Apr 3 2024 - 06:00

More than €140 million earmarked for the building of social and affordable housing last year went unspent with the money carried over into the 2024 budget, newly-published figures from the Parliamentary Budget Office indicate.

A total of €532 million in capital spending was carried over from 2023 across 15 Government departments and State bodies, according to the figures, with the departments of housing, transport and health accounting for just over two-thirds, €351.9 million, of the overall sum.

Housing topped the list with €141 million unspent, followed very closely behind by the Department of Transport, which carried over €140.9 million; and the Department of Health, which failed to spend €70 million of its capital allocation for the year.

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The figure for the Department of Housing brings its cumulative figure for the past four years to €1.66 billion with more than €1.1 billion of that having been earmarked for the provision of social and affordable housing.

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The figures, the department has previously said, were significantly affected by Covid-19, which slowed building activity and the carry-over for last year is down from €471 million in 2022.

Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin said the total net underspend on social and affordable housing last year was about €206 million, out of a budget of more than €2 billion, but that funds were reallocated to other non-housing purposes as the year went on.

“Any underspend and carry over in the programmes of the Department of Housing is completely unacceptable,” he said.

“The capital allocations and the delivery targets for social affordable housing are far too low. And the Government’s year-on-year failure to meet those targets of new-build social affordable homes has the direct result of leading to increases in homelessness, but also increases in house prices and rents.

“Minister [for Housing Darragh] O’Brien has failed to spend his full capital allocation every year and at a time of rising construction-sector inflation, surely the Minister should be looking for extra money to deliver on his targets, not failing to spend what he receives.”

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Mr Ó Broin said the unspent funds should have provided thousands of homes “at a time when the numbers of single people and households in emergency accommodation has reached historic heights”.

The total capital carry-over across the various departments and other bodies represented some 3.8 per cent of the €13 billion capital budget for this year but the figure is far more significant for individual departments or organisations.

The €45 million underspend at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, represents about 15 per cent of that department’s 2024 capital budget while the €15 million carry-over at An Garda Síochána is equivalent to almost 10 per cent of the force’s capital budget for this year.

The budget office raises concern that such carry-overs can make accountability for spends and efficiency difficult as the precise costs of specific projects become less clear to outside observers.

The more than €500 million carried over, however, is dwarfed by the total sum surrendered, or returned unspent, although this €1.7 million figure for 2023 includes funds from across all budgets, including current allocations.

By far the standout instance under this heading is the Department of Enterprise and Employment, which surrendered just over €644 million of its initial allocation of €1.62 billion for 2023, about 40 per cent of the total.

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The budget of the department, which funds the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and a range of business and other programmes, is larger than usual at present because of about €650 million in annual funding associated with the Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme.

However, it has surrendered €1.669 billion in unspent funding over the past decade according to the report.

The Department of Transport said 95 per cent of its capital allocation had been spent as planned, while the Department of Enterprise said it had “received significant additional allocations over the course of recent budgets to allow it and its agencies to support businesses impacted by the effects of Brexit, Covid-19, the war on Ukraine, the cost-of-living crisis, etc.

“Over the last two years significant funding allocated to the Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme to support businesses impacted by increased energy costs was not required for a number of factors, including mitigation measures which were put in place across Europe, including increased storage capacity for natural gas which lead to prices falling rather than increasing,” it added.

The Department of Housing was also approached for comment.

Emmet Malone

Emmet Malone

Emmet Malone is Work Correspondent at The Irish Times

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