Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are scoping out the overall staffing needs of the division but, to be clear, the overall intention and policy focus in the establishment of this division is not to shallow out or undermine the expertise or delivery systems we have within existing Departments. This is very much to complement and enhance delivery systems, to focus on barriers to delivery and to progress the overall reforms that will be required to drive delivery across different Departments and agencies. That is the overall intention here. This is not about trying to shallow out or undermine good delivery systems. It is about leveraging overall expertise to drive better delivery of infrastructure in our economy. That is why we will use additional analytic and specialist expertise by working with colleagues in the Department of Finance, who will obviously have a view on overall infrastructure delivery in our economy. We will also work with the NDFA and NewERA to enhance delivery. That is why the role of the NTMA and its inputs on overall infrastructure delivery were reflected in the general election campaign. We are trying to establish a greater centralised focus on, and greater oversight of, delivery to underpin the outputs and outcomes. The Deputy is correct; there are a number of examples of projects. In many instances and in certain areas, these are being driven on and are being delivered on budget and on time. In other instances, there are ongoing delays and members of the public are frustrated that they are not seeing the projects set out in the national development plan. We want to accelerate and boost delivery within the infrastructure division. We have overall responsibility for capital spending in the economy. That is why we are scoping out specific staffing needs but it is very much to complement the work of existing Departments, to support them in driving better delivery and identifying barriers and to get feedback from them on those barriers to that we can try to eliminate them and achieve the infrastructure delivery we need.

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