I have significant concerns regarding the absence of publicly available data on Government spending, a matter I raised previously with the Tánaiste. In particular, capital spending is a black hole. We see the money going in - some €87 billion this year, €12 billion of which is on capital projects with €165 billion heading out the door by 2030. We see bits and pieces of the outcomes - often just the stuff that gets attention, the calamities or the patronage. How can this House provide parliamentary oversight of public spending when appropriate standardised spending data is not provided by Departments? Budget 2023 is being framed at the moment and this Dáil knows virtually nothing of the choices and plans. Parliamentary questions on spending are answered glibly if they are answered at all. Ministers usually pivot away from the questions asked. The Committee of Public Accounts and the Comptroller and Auditor General only provide look-backs to identify failures in process. Our national economic dialogue bizarrely operates with virtually no standardised data. This House offers benedictions rather than debate over voted expenditure. The capital tracker, which is a welcome gesture towards better data, has withered becoming more opaque with every subsequent version.

It is simply impossible to see where public money goes. Vast parts of Ireland feel now that they are frozen out of a fair share of capital spending, such as in the midlands, the north east, the west and my home region in the south east. It is these regions that have turned their backs on the traditional parties of Government.

My personal analysis suggests that the bulk of discretionary spending is being funnelled into Dublin and Cork, which are homes to almost all of our Ministers. Do not tell me that I am wrong, or name check for me some projects that are happening in my neck of the woods. Show me where the totality of money is going. Publish proper, granular spatial data on public spending, particularly on capital projects. If not live or future-looking data, the least we should be able to see is historical data on completed projects. With €12 billion of capital expenditure this year, the southeast should be getting €1 billion. Waterford should be getting €330 million. With the data available to me, I estimate that the whole south east is just getting €330 million, which is a third of its due. Please do not tell me that I am wrong or that I am incapable of understanding economic data. Show me the regional breakdown of the €12 billion in capital spending. Without the data, we just look continually to the think rule of outputs in our hospitals, higher education, our public transport, our roads, our airports and our urban infrastructure. Why can ordinary people in this country not see where the money goes?

I thank the Deputy for raising this important policy question. I agree that we should have better data on how money is spent and on where it is spent. That is something that we are very much aligned on. I also agree that governments do not have any money. The only money that governments have is the money that we take from people and business in the form of taxation. It is not our money. It is the people's money. That is why we have to spend it responsibly. That is why we have to account for it properly.

We do have strong accountability mechanisms. We publish accounts every year. Every Government agency does so. Every Government Department has an annual report. We have a Committee of Public Accounts, which is chaired by the Opposition and which has considerable powers. We have a constitutional office in the Comptroller and Auditor General, who is responsible for auditing Government spending. Therefore, we have strong accountability mechanisms in that regard.

Capital spending happens all over the country. Sometimes when people do regional analysis as to how it is spent, they only focus on the big projects. I have seen some of the reports that Deputy Shanahan has mentioned. Often, they only count projects of over €30 million or €40 million. That is a misleading analysis. Of course, big cities will have the bigger, expensive projects. In more rural areas, there will be many smaller projects. Any analysis that only counts investments above a certain threshold is only and can only ever be a partial analysis.

One of the biggest investments that is under way at the moment, probably the biggest single investment that is under way at the moment in the State, is the national broadband plan. That is heavily skewed towards regional areas. It includes all regions but particularly regions outside of Dublin and areas that are most rural. The more rural the area, the more that project costs. The last mile is the most expensive aspect of that project. That project is doing something that almost no other country in the world has done. It is bringing fibre broadband to pretty much every home, farm and business in the country. It is really important, in my mind, in future proofing and digital proofing our country. The targets for its implementation have been revised after the Covid-19 pandemic. However, they are now being met. We now know that the cost of that project will be less than had originally been budgeted for. It will come in at under €3 billion. That is significant. That is the biggest single capital project happening in Ireland at the moment. Metro when it happens will be bigger, but at the moment this is the biggest one and it is very much focused on regional development and on rural areas. Yet, it gets left out of many of these analyses. I do not know why.

It might interest the Tánaiste to know that I asked the Library and Research Service, L&RS, to conduct a review for me last year. It told me that it could not do it because it did not have adequate transparency around data. That is something that the House needs to take up.

I will digress to share my frustration about capital downgrades. This morning we heard about a downgrade of vascular surgical services at University Hospital Waterford. That came on the back, I would say, of another steered report that has again ignored completely the population demographics down there; the fact that we have a rising population; the fact that we have a model 4 interventional cardiology and oncology service; the fact we have one of the busiest trauma units in the country; and the fact that we have one of the busiest orthopaedic services in the country.

Yet again, there was another steered report to send services up the road to Cork and take them out of Waterford.

A couple of days ago, the Tánaiste made a reference in the national media to difficulties in recruitment to the cath lab in University Hospital Waterford when, in fact, interview panels were not even put together and applications were not even made available for the jobs because they are not even advertised. The Tánaiste has been getting briefings and in the past he sometimes suffered from getting failed briefings from the South-South West Hospital Group.

What I really want to know is when will the Government start to defend the south-east region model 4 hospital with adequate finance and capital? When will it publish some funding strategy for University Hospital Waterford?

I am not up to date nor have I been briefed on the issue relating to vascular services in Waterford. I will check up on that. I got the Deputy's email the other day regarding the staffing of the second cath lab in Waterford University Hospital not having proceeded. I am concerned about that too and I have spoken to the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, and Senator Cummins about it. I will look into that further. It is important to get on with staffing the second cath lab in Waterford University Hospital. Staffing is difficult and-----

That is why what we advertise counts.

-----there are not many people in Ireland or the world who are currently looking for employment in the cardiology space. We need to begin that recruitment process to recruit as many staff as we can, however, and extend the hours of that service. That is something on which the Deputy can be sure I will follow up.

With regard to the health service generally, the fact is that investment in our health service is unprecedented. The figure is €22 billion this year, which is 50% more than when I was Minister for Health, which was not that long ago. More staff and doctors are working in our health service than ever before. We have 1,000 more beds than two years ago. There have also been significant investments in the south east, with the Dunmore Wing and second cath lab being part of that.