Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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12. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if the recent patterns in demographic growth require a revision in the national development plan; and what are the key areas which he has identified where additional investment in transformative changes or in capacity is required. [21546/23]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Everyone will agree that the world has changed dramatically in the past number of years. In that context, I will ask about the national development plan, NDP. Funding is not now a problem but there are huge capacity constraints. How does the Department plan for us to break out of the siloed thinking that has hampered much of our investment in the past?

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy. As I said, I am taking these questions on behalf of the Minister. Project Ireland 2040 sets out the Government's overarching vision for the provision of infrastructure in order to better cater for the needs of the State’s existing population and to accommodate projected population increases in a balanced and sustainable way. Project Ireland 2040 includes the national planning framework, NPF, which sets out the overarching spatial strategy for the next 20 years, and the ten strategic outcomes, to provide a strategic framework for the selection and development of appropriate interventions to address infrastructure needs at a national, regional and local level.

Under the NPF, the three regional assemblies are now responsible for co-ordinating, promoting and supporting the strategic planning and sustainable development of their regions, consistent with the objectives of the NPF, through the preparation of regional spatial and economic strategies. These strategies help inform the targeting of public infrastructure investment at regional and local level. It is important to note that the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, includes in-built mechanisms to allow for regular revision and replacement of the NPF. Such revisions are relevant to reflect changing circumstances that have taken place since the NPF was published. The Act requires the Government to either revise, replace or state why the Government has decided not to revise every six years after the publication of the NPF. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage would be better placed to advise on the status of that.

The ten-year NDP has been put in place to underpin the implementation of the NPF and to support the development and meet the infrastructure needs of all counties and regions, including both urban and rural areas. The NDP contains expenditure commitments for a range of strategic investment priorities. The Department is responsible for publishing the NDP and jointly monitors its delivery. As part of the most recent update to the NDP, the Department co-ordinated the inputs from the relevant funding bodies and conducted supporting analysis. Within this framework, the funding Departments and agencies identify infrastructure needs relating to their own sectoral strategies and goals and prioritise projects accordingly. Therefore, it is up to each Department to decide how projects are best targeted to deliver for challenging and changing demographics from within the allocations up to 2030.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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In short, the Department is saying, "God's in his heaven - All's right with the world!". I invite the Minister of State to challenge the thinking that lay behind that answer. The reality is we are seeing transformative change in the world we live in. There is a new expectation, for example, regarding offshore wind, or our capacity to build compact developments that do not just see takeaways for ten years before schools or childcare are developed. We have not got a strategy for exploiting broadband, which the Department opposed. We just heard from Deputy Hourigan how a fundamental block of using e-health is delayed. I invite the Minister of State to look at the infrastructural bottlenecks that are left, right and centre in every constituency across the country, including his, to see whether we can change the thinking within the Department.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy. To be honest, I do not disagree with anything he said. It goes back to the question raised by Deputy Conway-Walsh with respect to changes that have been made to the public spending code and the manner in which the gateways will change. As well as that, the Minister has made changes to the delivery of the NDP around the delivery board, which was the preserve of civil servants and Secretaries General until he took over the chairmanship of it. The Minister also brought outside people to that board, which is needed in the context of what the Deputy raised, to address areas that are suffering particular delays, either in planning or in getting through the public spending code or delivery of the capital. Everybody accepts it is not a money issue based on the amount of money being made available, namely, €165 billion over the period of 2021 to 2030. It is a leadership issue. The Minister, in the context of the changes he has brought about in the delivery board and the public spending code, is attuned to that because he realises there are particular infrastructure needs throughout the country that must be addressed in the here and now. This is not to mention what the Deputy addressed in his initial question regarding demographic growth.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the changes made to the delivery board but that board is essentially focusing on projects we have already signed up to. The reality is there are huge infrastructural bottlenecks that were not anticipated because of the change of expectations. We are now trying to deliver a 51% reduction in emissions, for example. That is much more ambitious than what we had previously. We need to embrace changes in land use, which will be a major challenge for farmers and others if we do not have significant investment programmes to back it up. The Department needs to think more fundamentally about what is changing in the world around us and how that plan needs to respond to those changes.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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As I said, I do not disagree with what the Deputy said. In a roundabout way, what I get from his contribution is that the plan, the delivery board and those charged with making sure it happens need to be more flexible and adaptable, in respect of the changes in weather, climate, economics, demographics, and everything else that is out there. Nobody thought, 12 months ago, that the population of County Galway would have arrived in this country over a little more than 12 months. Our population is now soaring at a rate we did not even anticipate 12 months ago. The Deputy is right that the flexibility and malleability of the plan and delivery board to deliver specific projects and specific areas of infrastructural requirements will obviously have to be reflected based on the challenges and risks to us at present. This should include the ones we see, not to mention those we cannot.