Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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10. To ask the Taoiseach when Cabinet committee D (infrastructure) will next meet. [10930/18]

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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11. To ask the Taoiseach when Cabinet committee D (infrastructure) last met; and when it is scheduled to meet again. [11220/18]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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12. To ask the Taoiseach when Cabinet committee D (infrastructure) will next meet. [11546/18]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 to 12, inclusive, together.

Cabinet committee D last met on 1 February 2018. The next meeting of the committee has not yet been scheduled.

Cabinet committee D was established to cover the areas of infrastructure investment, climate action and housing. There is significant work under way across each of these areas.

Cabinet committee D aims to ensure a co-ordinated approach to the delivery of this work and the ongoing development of policy.

In this context, the Government provided a forum in which the preparations for the recently launched Project Ireland 2040 were discussed, although there were several Government meetings dedicated to the preparation of the plan.

Project Ireland 2040 marks the first time our national planning policy and national programme of investment in infrastructure have been developed in tandem. Cabinet committee D will continue to provide a forum for oversight of the implementation of the plan.

Project Ireland 2040 places climate action objectives at the heart of public capital investment plans. It builds on the national mitigation plan and the national adaptation framework and will support a significant reduction in carbon emissions over the period to 2030. The largest single allocation under any theme in this plan is for climate change at approximately €22 billion over a ten-year period.

Regarding housing, Project Ireland 2040 anticipates provision for 550,000 additional houses by 2040, taking forward the progress already under way in implementing Rebuilding Ireland. Of these additional homes, 110,000 will be social or public housing.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy's time is up.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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We have ten minutes remaining and if people consume all of the time asking the questions, there will not be any answers.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I will, and I think I did.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Taoiseach has confirmed Cabinet committee D on infrastructure did meet to discuss if not formally approve the Project Ireland 2040 national development plan, and perhaps the Taoiseach will indicate to us whether it did approve it. Were there specific evidential criteria applied to the individual projects that were proposed in the plan? I asked in advance of the plan that they would be published at the same time. To ensure that we know proper due diligence and proper evaluation for every project on the same basis was made, will the Taoiseach arrange to have it published?

On the specific investment on preparing Ireland for Brexit, I am very concerned that while Rosslare Europort is one of the most important ports in the country, the only reference in the development plan to it is to have a further review of the port and neither is there a commitment to complete the M11 motorway, from Oilgate to Rosslare Europort itself, when the current phase, which is the Enniscorthy bypass, is completed, hopefully by the end of this year. In the event of there being difficulties with a land bridge across the UK to the rest of Europe, this would be a vital national link. I ask the Taoiseach to give his views on this matter.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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I too would like to hear something about the due diligence and metrics applied in terms of the compilation of Project Ireland 2040. It seems upon reading it that much of it was a restatement or rehash of announcements that had long been made and that people have been long awaiting.

The Taoiseach spoke earlier about the weather event and the status red the country has been through. He quite correctly commended the public services and emergency services. There has been infrastructural damage as a result of the very severe weather. The Taoiseach was in Wexford and he saw at first hand the devastation there. The stories among the farming community, where sheds caved in due to the bearing down of record snowfalls, were extremely worrying. It may be a mundane matter, but does committee D propose to look at this weather event and assess the infrastructural needs or gaps that arise as a result of such weather events, for example, the issue of technical specifications for sheds? This might seem mundane but it is an important matter. Will these types of issues be addressed? In terms of transport and housing equally, it not just a case of picking over the damage that has been done but planning in a concrete way for future episodes. Sadly, with climate change and global warming, it seems that increasingly these severe weather events are with us.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The other evening I went to see "Lady Bird" featuring Saoirse Ronan. Before the film started, there was a bit of a laugh around the cinema as an advertisement was played of little balsa men and little balsa houses that looked like architects' working models on behalf of the Government for the national development plan. To be perfectly honest, I wonder when we go to the cinema why we have such trivia put in front of us, paid for by public taxpayers' money. People were just laughing at it. The bus shelters, I do not quite know how many, particularly in Dublin 7 and Dublin 15, have been somewhat taken over by the same advertisements. These are in an area where there is a lot of housing need and it is not nice. They are balsa housing units and apartments that are not there. I do not get it. I notice some of them have been removed, and perhaps the Taoiseach will tell us why. In terms of the national development plan, are we now going to have a set of mini-launches of specific areas such as one for arts and culture, which I understand is in the works as we speak?

Technically, is the Taoiseach able to say why the Government decided to remove the cap of 10% on public private partnerships which was put in place by the previous Government and has now been removed? Of the two of the big providers of public private partnerships, Carillion, is bust, gone and in liquidation, and Capita is in a great deal of difficulty. Why is the Government removing the ban when, in particular at this point in time, public financing is definitely cheaper?

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I call Deputy Martin and ask him to stick to 30 seconds if he would.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I note the entire Cabinet is decamping to UCC on Friday.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Is that right?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am now beginning to understand why the Taoiseach was seeking assistance from all parties in the House for a quorum, because clearly half of the Fine Gael Party will be on the UCC campus marketing the national development plan.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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The Taoiseach will be in Waterford.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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On his way to Cork.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Delivery is the key and more than 9,000 people are in emergency accommodation of whom 3,267 are children. This is the bottom line. When people come into our clinics in desperate situations looking for housing, they find it unbelievable that there are all these advertisements about 2040 and 2027. The Luas to Finglas is post-2027 but it is a great thing and the Government will even get a few personalities and pretend it is contributing-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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We need to give the Taoiseach a chance to respond.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We need delivery. Rapid housing was promised when the then Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, announced it three years ago. In 2015, some 1,500 houses were to be delivered. There is a huge issue about delivery in 2019, 2020 and 2021 in hospitals, health services and housing. They are the key issues on which the Government needs to refocus.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Taoiseach has just under three minutes to respond.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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On Deputy Boyd Barrett's first question on Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company, I am not up to date with the issues relating to the harbour but I am familiar with the company and the place from my previous time as Minister with responsibility for transport. It was my view at the time, and we discussed it then, that the smaller harbour companies were not viable as semi-State companies and it would be better if they were transferred to the control of the local authorities. My role as Minister was to get the legislation through the Dáil and Seanad to make that possible. I did that and a number of smaller port companies have now been transferred to local authorities and this is another one. It is obviously a decision for the local authority as to whether it wants it to happen or not. It would be appropriate because these small port companies and harbours are more amenities than commercial enterprises. As amenities it is more appropriate that they be under local authority control than operated as if they were semi-State companies like the ESB or Dublin Airport Authority. I cannot make any commitment on clearing the debt. That is a matter the Deputy would have to raise with the Minister, Deputy Ross. I am not aware of the debts having been cleared for any other port, if there were debts on transfer.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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In terms of Project Ireland 2040, that was approved by Cabinet and not by a Cabinet subcommittee, and all projects were assessed by the line Department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The extent to which there was assessment depended on the nature of the projects. Projects under the purvey of Transport Infrastructure Ireland or the NTA often had quite detailed assessments and benefit to cost ratios, and other projects perhaps did not so much.

Rosslare Europort is owned by Irish Rail. Irish Rail did not put forward any specific plans for the development of the port but we thought it would be useful and helpful to include a mention of it to keep open the possibility that there could be investment in Rosslare.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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That is depressing in and of itself.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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It got a mention.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Other ports, for example the Port of Cork, the Port of Dublin and the Port of Foynes, put forward their own detailed proposals for development, which the Government supports. That is why they are included in the plan. The plan, which is backed by a ten year infrastructure investment plan, covers ten years and in any ten year investment plan there is a pipeline of projects, some that are under construction, some that have gone to tender, some that are still in planning and design and some that have yet to go to planning or design.

I looked back on previous capital plans. I looked back on the capital infrastructure priorities plan, which was produced by Fine Gael and Labour when we were in Government together. I looked at the 2007 plan published by Fianna Fáil and the Greens. We all took exactly the same approach and I think it is the right approach; to take the full ten-year spectrum of projects, including some that are already under construction, some that have yet to go to tender, some that are at the planning stage and some at the design stage. This is the approach that has been taken with previous capital plans and I did not see any reason to change it.