Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 to 11 together.

The meeting of the cross-departmental team on housing, infrastructure and PPPs scheduled for January was amalgamated with the most recent meeting on 2 February. The reason is that important preparatory work in one of the principle agenda items, namely, strategic national infrastructure, was still ongoing when the January meeting was scheduled to have taken place. It is expected that the Government will formally consider the outputs of that work in the very near future. The other main agenda item was the national spatial strategy with an emphasis on progress to date and plans for the year.

A further meeting of the team is being held today. Agenda items are: housing, particularly in the context of recent reports from the National Economic and Social Council and the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution; strategic national infrastructure, especially proposals to expedite delivery; and the transport investment programme under the ten year envelope.

In general terms, the team and the Cabinet committee to which it reports serve a valuable role in progressing and resolving issues related to infrastructural planning and delivery. To that end the team continued to make a major contribution throughout last year and met on ten separate occasions. I have reported to the House separately on those meetings.

Overall, the team has helped to improve significantly the context for the delivery of national infrastructure, especially in terms of time and cost. A particularly important feature of the team's work last year was related to the roll out of the multi-annual financial envelopes for the various broad categories of infrastructure activity. The House can be assured that the team will continue to make an important contribution throughout this year.

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