Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On what we have to deliver, notwithstanding the difficulties that we have, we are well resourced both on our estate side and our climate adaptation side. In 2023, we overshot the runway for capital. I have often been in front of this committee and other committees. I would say it is always better to ask for forgiveness than permission. As a Minister of State and a public representative, I believe it is important that public bodies are spending money that is assigned for capital and even maybe going further. That is why I was in before Christmas looking for a Revised Estimate. We will do the same this year, primarily because there are more schemes, particularly relating to flood risk, coming out of planning permission that had been stuck in a logjam for a while, which we will need money for.

I am satisfied with the resource level we have going forward. We have ongoing bilateral engagement at official level between the Department of public expenditure and reform and the Office of Public Works on this issue. I will have a meeting with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, shortly. In general, I am satisfied with regard to what we have the capacity and capability to do. The other thing that I have mentioned here before is that, notwithstanding all the issues with planning, one of the main impediments to delivery is specialist personnel. That is not only an issue in the public sector but in the private sector too. Only a limited number of hydrologists are available to us. I was in the Netherlands before Christmas and it has the very same problems that we have. People say that they are the experts with regard to keeping water out of people's houses. Experts in environmental considerations, whether environmental specialist engineers or hydrologists, are not easily got. That is putting a significant impediment on the delivery of our ambition.