‘No election link’ to €2bn spend

PASCHAL Donohoe has denied that the €2.25billion additional spending for projects in the National Development Plan (NDP) is linked to the timing of the next general election.

The Public Expenditure Minister said the funding was to help with soaring inflation and enable Government ministers to make progress with their planned projects.

On Wednesday, the minister announced plans to spend more than €2billion for projects under the NDP scheme, including public transport projects, the building of social homes, and bringing in additional acute hospital beds.

Mr Donohoe denied the funding was linked to an impending general election, which must take place by early next year.

‘It has nothing to do with the timing of an election,’ Mr Donohoe said.

‘I never said it was an unreasonable question. I just answered it. It doesn’t have anything to do with the timing of the election. What it has more to do with actually is the premise – we’ve had soaring inflation now over the last two years. There’s real signs that that’s beginning to come down now,’ the minister said.

‘I wanted to do two things. I wanted to ensure the commitments the Government has made in relation to building homes, building schools, student accommodation, in relation to the future of sports here in Ireland, that we can honour and preserve those commitments.

‘Secondly, in a small number of cases, a number of ministers now will have the ability to go ahead with a few new commitments during the year. That’s what the process was designed to do and has done.’

Mr Donohoe told RTÉ’s Today With Claire Byrne radio show that there was no ‘pulling money out of a hat’.

He said: ‘It was announced on budget day. There’s no hat here. This is all part of our budget arithmetic.’