Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy will be aware, I am responsible for setting the overall five-year multi-annual capital expenditure ceilings, and for allocating these resources across Government Departments. My Department is also subsequently responsible for monitoring expenditure on a monthly basis at a departmental level against these agreed ceilings. Decisions on how and where these allocations are then invested by individual Departments are a matter, in the first instance, for the relevant Minister, in line with the conditions of delegated sanction specified by my Department. It is therefore a matter for individual Ministers to manage their projects within the greatly increased capital ceilings available to them under Project Ireland 2040. As I have previously indicated both in response to Deputy Cowen and at other points, I intend to provide additional capital to ensure the national broadband plan can move ahead, and I stand by the commitments I have made to maintaining projects in other areas. Project Ireland 2040 seeks to reform how public investment is planned and delivered. It sets out an overall vision for Ireland's public capital projects and signals a shift to greater integration in regional investment plans, better co-ordination of strategies, and more rigorous selection and appraisal of projects to secure value for money. A number of decisions have been made within it, relating, in particular, to the work of our delivery board and construction sector group in responding to the various pressures now under way in the delivery of big capital projects.

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