Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I sincerely thank the Deputies for tabling what is a constructive Bill.

This is not something they are moving for effect. The legislation actually contains some good proposals. I am happy to discuss the Bill; it is worthy of debate.

To Deputy Shanahan, I must say that I love County Waterford. This is partly because it was the location of my childhood holidays in Dunmore East. When I go down there, I can see that Waterford city is flourishing with capital investment. I go down to the North Quays project and I see the construction under way there. Walking into the city, the public realm projects are incredible. I refer to the Waterford Walls project, the beautiful streets and the medieval buildings that we can only dream of having in Dublin city. It is fantastic.

My Department has had the pleasure of contributing €5 million to the quantum research endeavours under way in the South East Technological University, SETU. I do not know if the Deputy is aware that Waterford is at the forefront of quantum research. Some €5 million in funding for this project came from the EU and another €5 million from the Government. These moneys are being used to run the quantum research project at the university, which relates to the future of cryptography. I am delighted to see this happening. I am happy that the much-longed-for second cath lab is in place in the hospital in Waterford as well, and the Government is also looking forward to receiving an application for an airport in Waterford. Overall, then, all kinds of things are happening in County Waterford. I am looking forward to seeing a greenway running down to Tramore, adding to the existing greenways.

This is a shining example of what happens when we have good capital investment. Some €12 billion went into capital investment this year, and there will be more next year. We have one of the highest proportions of capital investment in the EU for the size of our economy. We need this level of capital investment for our climate action endeavours to enable us to deliver new forms of energy, new ways of heating our homes and new forms of transport. These are immense transformational changes that require enormous amounts of capital. This capital investment will replace the money we spent on fossil fuels in the past. We spend €1 million every hour on imported fossil fuels. As we move away from using these fossil fuels, we are replacing this spending with extensive, upfront capital investment. In the case of an offshore wind farm, for example, we do not pay for any fuel, but it is necessary to spend a lot of money, typically €2 billion for one wind farm, and we are looking at building 35 of them here over the next 17 years.

The Government notes the publication of this Capital Supply Service and Purpose Report Bill 2023 by Deputy Shanahan during Private Members' business on behalf of the Regional Group. The Bill provides for the requirement for each Minister:

...with responsibility for a Department of State, to periodically prepare a capital supply service and purpose report to provide certain information on the assets that were allocated money from the vote for such Department in a relevant financial year and to provide for related matters.

As the House may be aware, substantial information is already available which reflects the purposes behind this proposed legislation. Additionally, enhancements are due to come into effect in 2024 and these will improve the reporting of capital spending in the appropriation accounts. In the annual appropriation accounts of Departments, details of all major capital projects and public-private partnership projects, where the project value exceeds €10 million, are separately disclosed. Where the reported commitment level or projected project cost has varied by more than €500,000 compared with the previous year, the reason for the movement must also be explained.

Currently, there is extensive reporting of capital projects in the financial statements of Departments and offices, as well as in the annual reports and financial statements of bodies under their aegis. All Departments and offices, as well as nearly all bodies under their aegis, report their capital assets, property, plant and equipment, as well as intangible assets, in the context of the statement of financial position balance sheet, along with extensive disclosure notes. Bodies under the aegis in this regard and local authorities report under the accounting framework FRS 102. From 2024, Departments will be reporting using central government accounting standards based on international public sector accounting standards.

The Government is also committed to detailing progress on the delivery of the national development plan, NDP, at regular intervals to allow for full transparency concerning the implementation of Project Ireland 2040. This is achieved through regular updates of the Project Ireland 2040 capital investment tracker and the myProjectIreland interactive map viewer, as well as through the publication of annual reports and regional reports highlighting Project Ireland 2040 achievements and giving a detailed overview of the public investment being made throughout the country.

The capital investment tracker and the interactive map viewer are key tools in overseeing the progress of Project Ireland 2040. Their purpose is to facilitate the communication, monitoring and planning of investments to inform citizens of the variety of projects currently in the planning and construction phase in their local regions and throughout the country. They provide an aid to industry by giving a greater overview to the construction and infrastructure sectors of the Government's investment commitments and further opportunities for these sectors.

The latest editions of the Project Ireland 2040 capital investment tracker and the interactive map viewer were published on the gov.ie/2040website in February 2023. The tracker lists 320 large-scale projects and 140 programmes being implemented by various Departments and bodies, while the myProjectIreland interactive map viewer details 1,240 individual projects. The investment tracker and the map viewer databases contain project updates, detailing a considerable amount of information. For example, if we were to look at the capital investment tracker, it would be possible to see a brief outline of each project; the Department or body responsible for delivering it; its location and region; the type of investment that links it to specific sectors; its alignment with the national planning framework's ten national strategic outcomes; its current status; its construction commencement date; its completion, or anticipated completion, date; its current stage in its life-cycle, as per the public spending code; and information on its cost range.

In September 2023, the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform published the Prospects 2023/2024 report, which highlighted 50 of the largest individual projects making up Project Ireland 2040. This report provides further visibility on the sequencing of Ireland's priority infrastructure projects over the coming years, thereby facilitating firms to plan commercial bids for these major infrastructural projects.

In 2022, we saw clear progress being made in the delivery of major capital projects. The Minister published the Project Ireland 2040 annual report for 2022 in October. This report highlights the delivery of publicly funded capital projects throughout the country last year. Accompanying the 2022 annual report were three regional reports. Each of these regional reports provides a detailed synopsis of the public investments made in the regional assembly areas, namely, the Eastern and Midlands, the Northern and Western and the Southern. The publication highlights the delivery in 2022 of 7,433 social housing new builds, 180 completed school building projects and 16 new primary care centres and the National Forensic Mental Health Hospital, in Portrane, becoming operational.

I am responsible for the largest capital project happening in the State now, namely, the national broadband plan. The updates on this project are published every two weeks on nbi.ie. It is possible to see how many houses have been surveyed, how many have been connected, etc. We are at a point now where more than one-third of all homes, farms and businesses in the non-commercial area of rural Ireland now have access to high-speed fibre broadband to the door of their premises. In the course of next year, the 50% mark will be passed. By the end of 2026, which is the project deadline, 100% of all homes, farms and businesses in rural Ireland will have fibre-optic broadband running into their own premises. This will help with regional development.

It will mean that when people are living in a location outside the capital city or away from any city, it will be possible for them to work from home, bring jobs back to their home villages, study from home and get government services online. It is incredibly valuable to have high-speed, low-latency Internet available to people remote from urban centres. This is part of balanced regional development, but it is not everything. There are times when transport is necessary. It must be borne in mind, however, that 50% of the workforce is now doing some working from home. This is facilitating a large proportion of the population not to have to commute long distances, which I know brings misery.

For example, I regularly speak to third level students and they tell me transport is a major concern for them. This is linked with shortages in housing. Students must live further away from their colleges because they cannot get housing close by. In this context, it was critical that we cut the price of public transport fares for young people by 50%. These reduced fares are available to everybody up to their 26th birthday. Everyone in this category gets half off the cost of public transport, no matter where they live in Ireland, and this has transformed the finances of young people who are not able to live close to where they are studying and must travel long distances. Regional development, therefore, is critical. The way to measure this undertaking and to ensure we are on track in this area is to ascertain we have all the available information. Again, I sincerely thank the Deputies for tabling what is a constructive and thought-through Bill.

See this speech in context