Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)

We have received apologies from Deputy Cronin. I advise members of the constitutional requirement that they must be physically present within the confines of the Leinster House complex in order to participate in public meetings. Private meetings are a different matter. I also remind them of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable, or otherwise engage in speech that might be regarded as damaging to the good name of a person or entity. Therefore, if their statements are potentially defamatory in relation to an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks. It is imperative that they comply with such a direction, if it arises.

The first item on the agenda is the minutes of the last meeting. They have been circulated. Are they agreed? Agreed.

We move to correspondence. This is the second item on the agenda. The first item of correspondence is No. 012. It is an email from the Irish Academy of Engineering. It is a recent response to a consultation by the Department on barriers to infrastructural delivery. The document also provides links to academy reports on energy and infrastructure. It offers its support for the committee's work. It sent this to the Department and sent us a copy of the same submission. I suggest we note and publish it. That is agreed.

The next item of correspondence is an email on behalf of the Czech ambassador, Pavel Vošalík. It notes that a committee of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic will visit Ireland in the autumn. The Senate Committee on National Economy, Agriculture and Transport will visit the Houses of the Oireachtas on the days between 15 and 20 September and has requested to meet the members of our committee. In advance of this, it has requested a meeting with the clerk to discuss the matter further. Do members agree the clerk should meet with the representative of or assistant to the ambassador? I suggest we have an informal meeting with them. It can be a joint meeting with the Department of agriculture, but not a formal meeting. I say that because that is the week the Dáil is back and we are not back until the Wednesday. Then on the Thursday some Members of the Oireachtas might be interested in attending a little ploughing match taking place all that week. I would not like to have a formal meeting on the Thursday, taking into account the quorum. I suggest an informal meeting so some members can attend. That is the offer we will make to them. That is agreed.

No. 023 is an email from the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation providing further information sought at our meeting on 21 May. They were the first people in. The correspondence sets out the information requested during our meeting with the Department, including information on the two public consultations and engagement with the public. There are two documents detailing the existing list of projects over €200 million contained in the Project Ireland 2040 tracker and a note from the Department of Transport regarding the N24 and N25 roads. One of our members requested information on that roads situation and that is in that document. The N24 and N25 are listed under minor projects. There is a note on the N24 and N25, which is Waterford to Cahir, Waterford to Glenmore and Cahir to Limerick, and the allocation. Also included are the N11-N25 Oilgate to Rosslare and the N25 Midleton to Youghal. There was a €700,000 allocation.

The information is there on the issues specified but I have an issue with the general information provided by the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation in the other section of the reply. We asked when the major projects currently in the system were first initiated or considered and we requested the completion date. All the Department has given us are the dates of construction and completion. Sometimes planning and discussion could have been going on for a decade. I am sending this schedule back and asking when the first piece of paper arrived in the Department on a particular project and when it was completed. The schedule states that it concerns projects over €200 million which have not gone to construction. They include MetroLink, DART and the M20 Cork to Limerick. Many are still subject to appraisal. They have it broken down by Department. Health is there. The national maternity hospital is subject to appraisal. On the water side, it has the greater Dublin drainage scheme. The start date is 2028. That must be the construction start date. That is a long time in the pipeline, if you will pardon the pun. Energy, housing, tourism and flood relief projects are also there. I want the Department to give us the date on which the matter first came to the Government's attention for consideration. Then it moves on to completed projects and talks about O'Devaney Gardens' completion date. It says the start date was in 2023. That project has been around as long as I have, so that date must refer to construction.