Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach will announce decisions of Cabinet at about 6 o'clock today. I will proceed with my opening statement. I thank committee members for the opportunity to present the 2021 Estimate for the Department of Transport and for programme A of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. The set of transport Estimates before members provides an overall gross allocation to the Department of Transport of €3.556 billion, which constitutes €1.029 billion in current and €2.527 billion in capital. In addition, €151.48 million in capital carryover from 2020 will be invested in 2021. We are using the funding to provide ongoing services, protect services which are impacted by the Covid-19 emergency and to continue to invest in maintaining existing infrastructure, as well as continuing to develop new infrastructure with a focus on climate change. This funding for 2020 represents a €500 million or 16.4% increase on our investment levels for 2020.

In line with the Exchequer guidance in advance of the 2021 budget, the Department has stayed largely within its existing level of expenditure for current expenditure which excludes emergency supports.

In total, €443.1 million in additional emergency funding has been provided in 2021. This constitutes €426.6 million in current and €16.5 million in capital. My budgetary focus for 2021 is threefold. First, I want to ensure that where non-Covid current expenditure is concerned, the Department remains within budget. Second, I want to monitor Covid expenditure closely in order to identify pressures as early as possible. Finally, I want to ensure that the capital budget is fully invested and that existing capital programmes are progressed as quickly as possible under the circumstances to deliver the infrastructure planned under Project Ireland 2040 and the programme for Government ambitions.

I will turn now to aviation. The core non-Covid investment in the regional airports during 2020 will be approximately €31.5 million. This includes ongoing public service obligation, PSO, support to the regional airports via the regional airports programme. The sum of €10.15 million is allocated to cover costs associated with our membership of international organisations such as Eurocontrol, and recurring costs such as air accident investigation insurance. The Covid crisis has severely impacted the aviation sector. To mitigate the impact in aviation, an additional €41.6 million has been provided. The purpose of this funding is to provide additional supports to the regional airports and to Cork and Shannon airports. The sum of €16.5 million in capital supports has also been provided for investment in Cork and Shannon airports. In 2020 the Government sanctioned €15 million to meet the costs of repatriating or refunding customers affected by the collapse of tour operator businesses. A total of €1.9 million of this contingency was required in 2020. The sum of €15 million has again been provided in 2021 and the situation concerning travel and tour operators will continue to be monitored.

The land transport programme, programme B, which is the largest programme by far in my Department's Vote, representing approximately 94% of our overall budget, will increase this year by €459 million to €3.339 billion. Most of that increase is a step up in investment in roads and mass transit services. The main components of the programme are in the longer submission I have supplied to Members.

The most significant current expenditure allocation is €674 million to public transport PSO funding. We will continue to support strongly the delivery of socially necessary but financially unviable services throughout the country. This constitutes €304 million in existing level of service funding for 2020 and €370 million in emergency funding. The €340 million was provided in the budget to provide additional support to PSO services. The outlook was uncertain at budget time and continues to be uncertain, with ongoing level 5 restrictions since Christmas meaning that public transport has been running at 25% of total capacity since then. The crisis also continues to have an impact on commercial bus services. A sum of €30 million has been provided to continue to support temporary PSO contracts entered into in late 2020.

Sustainable mobility investment continues apace. There is a significant ramping up of investment in active travel measures in order to meet the €360 million average investment agreed in the programme for Government. In 2021 funding is being provided to support 468 different cycling and walking projects.

In relation to the existing rail networks, €623 million will be invested in heavy rail, light rail and bus maintenance and development. Of this, €203 million will be invested in the infrastructure manager multi-annual contract, IMMAC, rail maintenance and renewal programme. Investment in 2021 will progress rail fleet renewal and expansion, in particular the transition away from a reliance on fossil fuels towards low-emission vehicles, LEVs.

Improvements in bus services also continue, with more than €130 million in funding provided for the transition away from diesel to hybrid and LEV fleets. The BusConnects programme in Dublin continues to progress and plans are being developed to progress BusConnects in regional cities.

We continue to target new and innovative ideas to help to decarbonise the transport sector. We have provided €36.5 million for the electric vehicle, EV, grant scheme as the EV market continues to grow steadily.

Approximately €1.413 billion is available for the roads improvement and maintenance programme. With this, we will continue to provide grant support for the national, regional and local road networks.

Road safety is of paramount importance and our support for the operations of the Road Safety Authority, RSA, and the Medical Bureau of Road Safety will continue. There are ongoing significant backlogs in driver theory testing and driver testing at the Road Safety Authority due to the public health measures in place. We are continuing to monitor the situation in conjunction with the RSA. The RSA is primarily self-financed and is continuing to meet its statutory obligations without Exchequer assistance.

Funding for the maritime programme in 2020 is at €108.15 million or 3% of the Vote. Most of that funding is directed to the Irish Coast Guard and the main cost here relates to the search and rescue helicopter contract. The programme also funds the Commissioners for Irish Lights, which operates buoys and lighthouses to keep seafarers and their cargoes safe while in Irish waters. We also cover various administrative costs associated with the Irish maritime administration. We will continue the Coast Guard building programme to ensure the volunteers have adequate facilities for their operations and equipment and we are investing in IT infrastructure to enable the teams to further enhance how they work together. The sum of €1 million has also been provided to Wexford County Council to assist in the cost of environmental remediation works in Rosslare Port as part of the transfer of the port to management by the local authority.

Programme A concerns the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. Overall, almost €248.5 million is being allocated to the communications programme in 2021. This consists of €14.98 million current and €233.5 million capital, including €15.247 million capital carried over from 2020. The biggest item of investment within this programme is the national broadband plan at €225 million including capital carry-over of €15.2 million. High-speed broadband has the capability of completely transforming how people live and work. I do not need to expand on that, as Members will be aware of it. The national broadband plan contract is the largest infrastructural project in rural Ireland since rural electrification.

The Estimate for Eircode postcodes is €1.5 million. Eircode postcode usage continues to grow and is used widely among the public, businesses and public sector. In March 2020, the daily lookup limit on the free Eircode postcode finder website was increased from 15 to 50 in response to the Covid-19 crisis for members of the public and businesses locating addresses. As a result, the ten-month total for March to December 2020 was 24.3 million lookups, a 46% increase on the same period in the previous year. The Estimate also includes €5.1 million operational funding for the National Cyber Security Centre and €3.5 million for the National Digital Research Centre. I will stop there. I am happy to take any questions.