Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I thank members of the joint committee for the opportunity to discuss the issues relevant to my Department. My Department operates at the centre of Government to drive the delivery of better public services, living standards and infrastructure. The remit of my Department is broad but can be summarised across three areas: governance and oversight of public expenditure; building capacity across the civil and public service; and delivering effectively across our broad policy remit.

With regard to public expenditure governance, my Department promotes and supports the effective and sustainable application of resources in line with the budgetary parameters with the aim of delivering economic and social progress. It develops expenditure policy in line with agreed Government objectives to deliver on our policy agenda. These include public financial procedures, infrastructure guidelines, procurement guidelines and broader major capital projects. The work my Department does seeks to promote governance, openness and transparency through the code of practice for the governance of State bodies, the regulation of lobbying, protection of whistleblowers and freedom of information. To ensure public expenditure achieves effective outcomes, my Department monitors expenditure from climate, well-being and equality perspectives; produces expenditure and policy reviews via spending reviews; and produces organisational capability reviews in order that Departments and offices achieve their objectives.

My Department is building a public service that can meet the long-term needs of a changing society and environment. It does this through a range of pay, pension and HR policies, including legal responsibility for the appointment, pay and superannuation of Civil Service and public service staff; multiyear public service pay agreements; and a range of policies supporting a more agile and inclusive workforce, such as an apprenticeship programme for the public service.

My Department is also seeking to drive delivery of an ambitious programme of public service reform through the transformation strategy. It is also leading on digitalisation of public services with the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, to create more integrated, user-friendly and efficient services and promoting and advancing the use of new and emerging technologies, including AI. Delivery has been a key theme of my tenure in the Department, and we are particularly focused on infrastructure. Throughout Brexit, the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis, our country has responded with resilience and an ability to adapt to changing circumstances. We remain in a strong economic position in the face of these challenges, which has allowed for increased investment in public services, but we must do more to speed up the delivery of infrastructure. It is critical for enhancing our competitiveness, attracting foreign direct investment and supporting our domestic enterprise sector. It is vital that we ensure increased investment across economically strategic areas, such as water, electricity and transport.

To deliver the NDP review and to support accelerated infrastructure delivery, I have established a new infrastructure division in my Department. It is working with deployed sectoral experts and an accelerating infrastructure task force, which I chair, to identify the barriers that are delaying project delivery and the solutions to overcoming them. Last week's national economic dialogue saw good engagement from many sectors, and this feedback, in addition to what we will garner from public consultation, will be invaluable as we look at shaping the solutions we need to really advance delivery. I welcome the views of the committee and look forward to discussing the range of work in my Department.