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

That is fine. The reality is that when it comes to the delivery of the national broadband plan, an important school or important health projects, the majority are delivered on budget. If they are not delivered on time, it can be because of delays that take place in the planning process. We are not in a position to control the planning process. We are in a position to control the legislation around it, but not the decisions that An Bord Pleanála makes and that the judges make to respond to concerns that citizens may have that are beyond the control of the Government.

In the context of the role that we play in relation to the evaluation and the management of taxpayers' money, it happens at two different levels. The first is where funding is allocated to individual Departments allowing that to be used in the way we intend. The second is where, project by project, depending on the scale of the project and its cost, we have infrastructure guidelines that require different levels of accountability and business case evaluation. Those are the two ways in which it is done.

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