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

The Government has kicked the can down the road on capital projects. The national development plan, NDP, was reviewed in 2021 and the reviewed NDP set out departmental capital ceilings to 2025. What we saw in budget 2024 was the Government staying within the NDP. The reviewed NDP set targets for percentage of GNI* for capital investment. The targets it set for 2023 and 2024 were 4.9% and 5%, respectively. Now those figures are estimated by the Department to be 4.1% and 4.3%. That means the Government is far behind on capital investment in real terms. Why was budget 2024 not used as an opportunity to address the shortfall in capital investment?

Cabinet Ministers were warned of a €14 billion deficit in September. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, IFAC, has warned there will be a €19 billion black hole in our capital budget by 2030, which is very serious.

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