Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and I understand that. We had issues earlier this year, however, with capital projects in education where the Government was forced to row back on the initial plans and to scrap a number of projects because the expenditure ceiling had been reached in inflation. This caused very significant distress to schools and to their communities who in many instances had been waiting years and had gone through multiple hoops to get projects to go ahead. This highlighted the shortcomings of the Government capital investment when it is not responsive to inflation.

My question, therefore, is when will we now reach the 5.1% of GNI* expenditure which should have been reached in 2024? It seems like we are not meeting the levels of ambition set out in the national development plan when we look at the percentage of GNI*. That is the measurement we should be using. Is the Minister committed to reaching a 1.5% of GNI* in capital projects and when will that happen?

See this speech in context