Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy rightly points out, under the mid-term review, the Government will confirm the allocation of the additional €5.14 billion committed for capital investment. Following commitments made in the budget for 2017 and the increase in funding for housing, there is approximately €2.65 billion in uncommitted additional capital through to 2021. Submissions from the Departments are being received by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Public consultation was undertaken in April to inform the view of the capital plan. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform will assess the submissions received from Departments and make recommendations to Government in the third quarter of 2017 to inform the Government's final decision on revised capital allocations to be announced in the context of the budget for 2018, which will obviously take place in October.

The review of the plan will take place in two stages. Phase 1 will be a focused review of priorities, aimed primarily at advising Government in the context of budget 2018 on how the additional capital funding committed by Government should be allocated over the remainder of the plan.

Phase 2 will assess and report on the framework required to underpin longer-term analysis of Ireland's infrastructural planning needs. In my address to the Institute of International and European Affairs, Ireland at the Heart of a Changing European Union, I reaffirmed that the national planning framework for spatial planning due to be finalised later this year will be complemented with a longer-term ten-year capital plan.

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