Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I said earlier, capital expenditure is at an all-time high in the history of the State, with a commitment to maintaining and further increasing this over the lifetime of the Government. The overall level of capital expenditure in 2021 stands at almost €11 billion when capital carryover is included.

Efficient public capital investment means quality investment decisions supported by robust evidence and analysis to maximise outcomes from limited public resources. This is not a static space and public bodies are continually working to improve processes and frameworks to ensure value for money in capital expenditure.

As the Deputy will be aware a review of the national development plan is now well advanced. A key focus of the review is on the capability and capacity of the public service to deliver the ambitious targets for investment that are set out in the plan. A range of measures are already under way to increase public sector delivery capacity. I touched on those earlier. I also referenced the EY report, Supporting Excellence: Capital Project and Programme Delivery Capability Review. I have acknowledged the good delivery capacity available in large parts of the public sector where responsibility sits for delivering major public investment projects.

However, the report notes that there are longer term capacity challenges in other sectors, some of which will see a major ramping up in capital investment over the life of the national development plan. These sectors may require an upgrade in capacity or enhanced support from the centre. This strategic and targeted upgrade will be the focus of Government investment in the medium term. While the Office of Public Works will have a key role in this workstream the establishment of an over-arching State construction body is not envisaged at this time.

A key recommendation of the report is that the national investment office within my Department should convene an action team comprising experts from across the public sector to tailor and set out a roadmap for the implementation of the recommendations in more detail. That work is under way. That action team was established in March. I can talk about that more presently.

See this speech in context