The Minister for Rural & Community Development has been slammed for failing to spending the €163million allocated last year.

A total of €19m of allocated funds remained unspent, despite work being needed in infrastructure projects throughout Ireland.

Fianna Fáil TD Éamon Ó Cuív said the underspend by Minister Michale Rig comes as "no surprise".

He said: "This underspend comes as no surprise – I had been forecasting throughout 2017, that there would be a very significant underspend by this Department as it was evident in the replies I was receiving from the Minister and his officials. In fact, if it wasn't for the late approval for the Local Improvement Scheme, which I had been requesting, the underspend would have been much more significant.

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"It is absolutely imperative that the Minister lays out clearly, how he intends spending the money allocated to him this year, as well as the carryover of €7.7m in capital, being brought forward from 2017, fully and in good time.

"This Government repeatedly claims that it has not enough money to provide services and basic infrastructure, so it is difficult to understand how Minister Ring can fail to spend such a high percentage of the budget in any one year. This is particularly significant when this Department’s budget is by far the smallest budget of any of the government Departments."

(CD/MH)