Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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12. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the way in which capital projects will be prioritised under the National Development Plan 2018-2027. [21512/18]

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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I ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform how capital projects will be prioritised under the national development plan.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The capital allocations made in budget 2018 and the national development plan were informed by the extensive evidence base collated and published on the Department's website in 2017 as part of the mid-year capital review. The evidence base included a macroeconomic analysis, an assessment of progress to date on the 2015 plan, departmental submissions, a public consultation process, an infrastructure capacity and demand analysis and an analysis of the resourcing available for increased investment. In addition to this, a review of public private partnerships, PPPs, was undertaken by the public investment management assessment unit of the International Monetary Fund.

It should be noted, that while I am responsible for setting the overall allocations across Government Departments and for monitoring monthly expenditure, decisions on which capital projects are prioritised within these allocations are matters for Ministers and have to be taken in the context of the national development plan.

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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The national development plans were introduced in 1989 on the recommendation of the EU to ensure an evidence based approach for prioritising projects to guarantee the taxpayers value for money. With the publication of the National Development Plan 2006, this evidence-based approach was diminished. The NDP which the Minister's Government has published displays the same deficiencies. The Irish Planning Institute stated that Project 2040 choices send mixed messages about evidence-based planning with its president stating that good planning is evidence based. Does the Minister believe the Government's planning is sufficiently evidence based and is it good enough that a plan committing €116 billion lacks sufficient planning?

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Yes I do, having published the evidence on it.

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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In chapter 6.2 of the National Development Plan 2018-2027 it is stated that the work of the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service network in building analytical capacity across the Civil Service through specialist recruitment and learning and development will also play an important role in enhancing the evidence base for decision making. In year one of the NDP, what work has the Irish Government and Economic and Evaluation Service, IGEES, completed to this end?

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The work on the evaluation of projects and making choices within the national development plan will be more of a responsibility of the implementation board that has been set up for Ireland 2040. It has already met once and any decisions that are made - for example, on the allocation of funds from the four funds that have been set up to drive new work and new activity to make Ireland 2040 happen - have to be shared with the implementation board. The work of IGEES will be more focused on implementing the next round of our comprehensive spending review.