Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputies for their questions. To speak to Deputy Crowe's point, there has been a significant consultation on Ireland's procurement strategy and we will have a new national procurement strategy in the coming months. The Minister of State, Deputy Emer Higgins, is leading out on that work. Changes are taking place in the EU and we expect them to conclude during Ireland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2026. I agree with Deputy John Connolly that we need more balance in the broader discussion around infrastructure delivery and the metric has to be that it can advance and be accelerated while having the appropriate safeguards in place. That is the work we are doing on the project life cycle. From concept to delivery, how can we cut time out of the particular points which are creating excessive delays and impacting on communities that have an infrastructure deficit? That question is central to the work we are doing as part of the review of the national development plan and the accelerating infrastructure task force, as is how we better balance risk to promote delivery.

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