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Officials from the Department of Agriculture are to be quizzed by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on its consistent annual underspend.
The PAC focuses on ensuring public spending delivers value for money. Last year, the Department spent €1.55bn and oversaw the payment of €1.2bn in EU funds to farmers through direct payments.
As reported by the Irish Farmers Journal, the Department had an underspend of €178m last year with the funds being returned to the Exchequer.
Chair of the PAC, Fianna Fáil’s Séan Fleming said the committee were keen to discuss the consistent underspend along with “substantial shortfalls in tree planting targets”.
Forestry
Attention was drawn to the target shortfalls by the Comptroller and Auditor General. Between 2015 and 2018, €404m was spent by the Department on forestry development.
The Department also provides substantial funding to a number of bodies including Teagasc, Bord Iascaigh Mhara, An Bord Bia and the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund. Fleming said the committee would discuss “how the Department exercises its supervisory role over the State bodies which it funds”.
Details of the internal financial controls regime in place at the Department will be discussed by the committee.
The meeting takes place tomorrow, Thursday 24 October.
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