Mr. Robert Watt:

The delivery board is chaired by myself and the Secretary General, John McCarthy, at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. As the Chairman is aware, Project Ireland 2040 brought together the NDP - the traditional capital plan for Governments - along with the national spatial planning framework that we devised. We believe this is a very important change. For the first time, we have a spatial plan for the country which sets out where we hope new homes will be built and where people will live in the future, along with a capital plan. They reinforce each other so that the decision-making relating to the spatial dimensions of our planning are reflected in capital spending and vice versa. I set up this group, which in effect has the main Departments and delivery bodies that are responsible for delivering the plan. We have met four or five times so far where we discussed the challenges relating to delivering the plan. We have had presentations from each of the Departments and agencies setting out what they are doing and the challenges and timeframes involved. Currently, we are focusing on issues such as those relating to value for money, construction inflation, planning and how to ensure that we can deliver on the targets set out for Government.

That is separate from specific issues relating to climate. There are separate structures within Government in terms of climate. Our focus is on delivering the overall plan of €116 billion. Within that, there are issues relating to climate. There is the energy efficiency measures in terms of the retrofitting scheme. We receive updates on that from the Department and the SEAI. There are other investments relating to public transport, the metro, buses and other matters which fall within that remit. The board is focused on delivering on the plan.

When it comes to all the dimensions of climate action, there is a separate committee which is chaired by the Department of the Taoiseach, at assistant secretary level. It is a senior officials group that is charged with co-ordination and delivery of climate action across the main Departments of Government. They feed into each other in that progress with Project Ireland 2040 has an impact on our various targets. Their view on the evolution of climate policy will have an impact on the way we deliver Project Ireland 2040 in the years ahead.