Mr. Kevin Meaney:

I thank the committee for this opportunity to discuss the recent introduction of the infrastructure guidelines, which were published in December 2023 and became effective from the start of this year. I am a principal officer in the national investment office in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. I am accompanied by my colleagues from the climate division. Mr. Frank Newman is also from the national investment office and Ms Ciara Morgan and Ms Niamh Foley are from the climate research unit.

The renewed national development plan was launched in 2021, and it is the largest in the history of State, with significant increases in investment in areas such as housing, health, transport, education, enterprise, sport and climate action. Conscious of these greater levels of capital spending, the Department sought to ensure that disciplined project evaluation, preparation and implementation would be enhanced and that vital infrastructure projects would be delivered on time and in a manner than ensures value for money for the taxpayer. The new infrastructure guidelines, following on from the previous public spending code, give project managers the necessary tool kit to achieve this. In March 2023, after examining the support structures and levers available across government in order to maximise delivery of vital infrastructure, six priority actions were approved by the Government to improve national development plan delivery and ensure that capital allocations are best utilised. The first of these six priority actions included having the public spending code reconstituted as the infrastructure guidelines.

The most recent public spending code, which was introduced in December 2019, provided a set of guidelines and a project lifecycle from conception to completion, which gave Departments and public bodies the tools to appraise project proposals in line with international standards. While these oversight arrangements worked quite well and provided a high degree of confidence that the projects will deliver value for money, there is also a necessity to ensure that projects are delivered in a timely manner and that there are no unnecessary administrative delays hindering this. This why we have refreshed the requirements for capital projects in the infrastructure guidelines. We have reduced the number of approval stages and streamlined the requirements for major projects while retaining the international best practice governance and oversight arrangements already in place.

These changes combined with the other significant actions aimed to enhance delivery of the national development plan, including reform of the capital works management framework, reconstitution of the Project Ireland 2040 delivery board and reviewing the capacity in major Departments and agencies, will provide a fresh impetus to the delivery of the national development plan.

Some of the key changes implemented through the updated infrastructure guidelines include that the number of approval stages prior to implementation for projects has been reduced from five to three. These include approval gates by the approving authority at preliminary business case and approval-in-principle stage, pre-tender stage and final business case stage. The general threshold for major projects has increased from €100 million to €200 million. Additionally, there will be a review of the thresholds every three years to ensure they remain appropriate. The Government is no longer the approving authority for major projects. Instead the relevant approving authority should seek Government consent at two key stages in the project lifecycle, namely, the strategic assessment and preliminary business case stage and the final business case stage. The external review and major projects advisory group review remains a requirement for projects greater than €200 million at the strategic assessment and preliminary business case stage, prior to seeking Government consent following the approval of the parent Department and-or the approving authority.

The new guidelines also provide clarification on the roles and responsibilities of the Accounting Officer, better reflect the carbon and environment impact of proposals, provide updated guidance on the development and process for programmatic proposals which may consist of a number of related projects, and reflect changes arising from recommendations put forward by the major projects advisory group.