Thomas Pringle TD
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Donegal Council needs greater control over Capital Plan spending – says Pringle

A5 road

 

Press Release – June 6th, 2017

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The Capital Plan, published in 2015, sets out a six year timeframe for infrastructural investment in Ireland to 2021. The total amount of state backed investment under the Plan amounts to €42 billion over this period.

Deputy Pringle raised the issue in the Dáil after the publication of Donegal County Council’s ‘Infrastructure Development and Supporting Funding Requirements’ Report which found a series of significant investment requirements for infrastructural projects across the County particularly in the areas of roads, social housing, transport, broadband, electricity and sewage.

Deputy Pringle raised the summary findings in the document with Minister Pascal Donohoe ahead of the Department of Public Expenditure’s review of the Capital Programme which will see new and current spending projects amended after a consultation process from each Department was carried out recently.

Criticising the process however, Deputy Pringle called out on the Minister for not including Donegal County Council and other Local Authorities in the consultation process and expressed that “it’s time that Donegal County Council was given the authority to input into what projects should receive central exchequer funding as part of the Capital Plan. Given the history of chronic underinvestment in County Donegal, local authorities need to be given more oversight on project funding”.

“The Minister’s response was to say that local authorities were not involved in the consultation process because they are not allocated funding directly from the Department of Public Expenditure and so cannot determine which local authority project can receive funding.

“This is precisely the problem and time and time again local authorities are being blamed for not spending money on the housing crisis, when in actual fact it’s because they are not given sufficient authority to oversee spending on large scale investments.

“We need to empower local authorities to input into what local communities need and to override chronic underinvestment as set out by national Government policy but the current Government has no interest in increasing democratic representation to local communities” concludes Pringle.

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