Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I will check that for the Deputy as I do not have that information in my notes and I do not want to mislead the House. I am not aware that they are not on track but I will check and come back to the Deputy on that today.

Yes, we are on track for 2027. As the Deputy rightly said at the outset, I do not want to get ahead of ourselves here in the sense that, in fairness to all parts of the defence infrastructure, we need to go through a rigorous process of which project and when, and that pipeline and prioritisation. We will be in a position to publish the projects we intend to deliver in 2026 very shortly. We will also be in a position a couple of weeks later to publish the sectoral investment plan for defence project by project. That will take us out for the next five years. That work is now under way. I have met the Chief of Staff on this issue together with senior officials in my Department. They are now preparing those investment plans. They are doing so from a position of having a lot of extra capital funding, from a low base - let us be truthful. Even with a lot of additional funding there still needs to be that sense of prioritisation and that work is under way.

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