Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Chair and members of the committee for the invitation to discuss the issues relevant to my Department, particularly the delivery of the national development plan review 2025. As the Chair stated, I am joined by Ms Connors and Mr. Meaney from the Department.

As members are aware, my Department operates at the centre of Government to try to deliver better public services, living standards and infrastructure. The remit of my Department is broad but can be summarised across three areas, namely, governance and oversight of public expenditure, building capacity across the civil and public service, and delivering effectively across our broad policy remit.

In relation to the infrastructure remit for my Department, the programme for Government set out a new dedicated infrastructure vision which was to be created within the renamed Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation. This has been delivered in the opening months of this Government. The new division has tasked stakeholders to advise Government on strategic project selection and prioritisation aligned with national priorities and making the maximum use of resources. The delivery of the national development plan review 2025 is the first step in this process to accelerate infrastructure delivery to meet our growing economic and social needs as a country.

The delivery of essential infrastructure is a key driver in ensuring our economy's competitiveness and resilience. In the past five years, there has been more than €65 billion invested in capital infrastructure projects across our country to improve people's lives through the national development plan, with total capital investment in 2025 estimated to be close to €17 billion by the end of the year. This represents the highest annual spend to date in this country. While this funding has delivered a significant amount of infrastructure, including roads, houses, schools, hospitals and so much more, all of which have improved the lives of people in Ireland, more prioritised investment is required to build on the ongoing success of the country.

However, as noted in the programme for Government, infrastructure deficits remain in some critical sectors and certain locations across the country, which require enhanced investment in infrastructure to develop our economy, deliver on our housing targets and boost our competitiveness.

The remit given to me as Minister of this Department was to set out a clear ambition to prioritise the delivery of transformative, growth-enhancing infrastructure over the next five years in critical sectors such as energy, water and wastewater, transport and health digitalisation. In July, we reaffirmed that commitment with a plan that would deliver this level of investment to safeguard Ireland’s future. Against a changing and uncertain global economic backdrop, this plan is necessary to safeguard our future prosperity. It will secure growth in our economy, protect jobs and enhance our competitiveness over the long term. I firmly believe that this national development plan is our route to long-term stability and prosperity.

The core priority areas that were protected and enhanced within the NDP are the necessary networks and building blocks on which all further development is dependent. This is the largest ever capital investment plan in the history of the State and will support the comprehensive upgrading of our water, energy and transport infrastructure. Investing in this critical infrastructure will allow us to: provide the 300,000 additional houses we urgently need by 2030; provide enhanced road and public transport infrastructure to connect our island and reduce travel times; provide greater opportunities to attract foreign direct investment and support our international competitiveness; and deliver more childcare facilities and school places, investment in children’s disability services and better healthcare for all.

In total, the NDP review in 2025 sets out planned total public investment of €275.4 billion over the next decade. This includes a mix of funding: utilising the release of one-off funds, including the Apple escrow fund; proceeds from the sale of bank shares; and broader State funds such as the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund. Of the €275.4 billion to be invested to 2035, €202.4 billion is Exchequer voted capital, with an initial €102.4 billion allocated by sector to Departments out to 2030 as part of Exchequer ceilings within the NDP. This reflects an increase of over €24 billion relative to the previous planned NDP ceilings for these years. Key allocations include: almost €36 billion for the Department of housing, accounting for more than one in three euro of all allocated Exchequer capital funding to 2030; almost one in four euro invested in transport infrastructure to deliver high-quality public transport, expand our road network and support active travel; over €12 billion provided to fund water services and wastewater services and improve water quality; and over €9.2 billion, or almost one in every ten euro of Exchequer capital funding, allocated to the Department of Health to increase capacity across our hospitals and primary care centres and drive health digitalisation.

In addition to the significant Exchequer allocations, non-voted funding sources will also enable Government to unlock an additional €10 billion in equity to be released out to 2030. There is €3.5 billion in equity funding from the Central Fund to be drawn down by the ESB and EirGrid to fund enhanced energy grid capacity to support the Government’s housing and competitiveness objectives. A sum of €2 billion in equity funding is being provided to Uisce Éireann in 2025 to enable the delivery of additional homes and a further €2.5 billion will be provided to Uisce Éireann for large-scale water infrastructure projects over the period to 2030. A sum of €2 billion will be released from the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund to support low-carbon transport investment and will provide a dedicated funding stream for the MetroLink project.

Following on from the publication of the review, Ministers were asked to develop sectoral investment plans that will provide specific details on the projects that can be delivered between now and 2030. Drafts of these plans will be submitted to my Department by late October. Their purpose will be to provide a clear pipeline of projects as well as certainty and predictability to the public, investors and the domestic and international construction sectors. This is key to nurturing the right conditions for investment and delivery. Following a review of consistency and deliverability by officials in my Department, sectoral plans will be published across November 2025.

The State needs to get back to delivering infrastructure at speed and at scale. To do this, the increased capital investment we have committed to needs to be matched with a coherent plan to remove the barriers to delivery. In July, I released my Department’s assessment of the factors delaying the delivery of critical infrastructure. Since then, my officials and the task force on accelerating infrastructure have been working on the development of actions and reforms that can be implemented to overcome these barriers. This work is approaching its conclusion. In the period following the budget, I intend to publish a final report and action plan that will detail the reforms that Government will implement to accelerate the provision of critical infrastructure.

This action plan will focus on a small number of high-impact, time-bound actions that are resolutely focused on shortening the time that critical infrastructure projects spend in development, planning and judicial processes before construction can begin. This will not be easy. A complex web of over-regulation of our economy, increasing judicial reviews and overlapping policy priorities, has driven a culture of excessive risk aversion and delay throughout approval systems for critical infrastructure. I hope to have the support of this committee and other critical stakeholders for the implementation of a robust action plan and reforms that clearly overcome these barriers. Political and public support will be necessary to take on inertia and entrenched interests so that we can provide the infrastructure our society needs for the well-being of our people.

The increased mandate provided to my Department provides a real opportunity to ensure the right building blocks are in place to support and enable the delivery of transformative critical infrastructure. This is necessary to sustain our economic growth and to support the delivery of housing and other important social infrastructure. A €275 billion national development plan review is the first step in this process, with specific commitments to key sectors and the most transformational projects. The next steps will be delivered in the coming months with the publication of the actions and reforms from the accelerating infrastructure task force and with Departments setting out their medium-term sectoral plans and priority projects.

I again thank committee members for their time. I also thank them for the broader work they have been doing in the past number of weeks and months on this area, which has been very helpful and informative. I look forward to today's engagement.