Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is the process we are now involved in. The review of the national development is at an advanced stage. We have held an extensive public consultation exercise at this point with well in excess of 500 submissions from the public. We have published phase 1 of the review of the NDP. That has involved an extensive amount of documentation and it provides the evidential basis for making the decisions as a Government on the allocation of those resources out to 2025 in the revised NDP. It is at an advanced stage. Once we have agreement from Cabinet on the capital ceilings by Department out to 2025 and the overall envelope out to 2030, that will allow Departments to set their individual priorities.

Of course, it is the case in the implementation of any national public capital investment programme that there will be projects that do not move as quickly as you might wish. There will be projects that encounter difficulties along the way. Of course, it is open to Government at any point to select other projects that can step into the place of the projects that have run into difficulty.

The key measure set out in the summer economic statement is the framework. It is €50 billion of taxpayers' money going towards the public capital investment programme over the next four years, 2022 to 2025. We must ensure we get value for money. That is why the implementation of the public spending code and the strengthening of the external assurance framework is so important. In recent days, my Department has gone out to tender, for example, to put together a panel of experts who will provide their experience and expertise to line Departments in managing major projects. We are conscious of the escalation in costs across the system. I need to ensure we have enough safeguards in place to protect this massive public investment and to make sure it delivers. What I am most concerned about is output and that we get the return from the investment of this money by way of new houses, new public transport projects, new roads, climate action measures etc. We look forward to publishing the full details of that shortly.

There is always flexibility within that capital envelope. As the Deputy will be aware, when there is an underspend in any year, Departments are permitted to carry forward into the following year 10% of their total capital budget. We saw that happen into 2021 where approximately €700 million was carried forward. Given the shutdown of construction for a large part of the first half of this year, I expect there will be some underspends in 2021. We will undoubtedly seek to avail of the carry-forward provisions into next year which will increase further the amount of resources that will be available.