Written Answers - Departmental Expenditure.

Tuesday, 21 October 2008

Dáil Eireann Debate
Vol. 664 No. 3

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

Minister for Finance (Deputy Brian Lenihan): Information on Brian Joseph Lenihan  Zoom on Brian Joseph Lenihan  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 [433]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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