Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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80. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the number of staff in his Department's new infrastructure division; the respective grades and areas of responsibility of staff; and if he will confirm the division's key responsibilities and deliverables for 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28801/25]

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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Will the Minister elaborate on the staffing composition of the new infrastructure division within his Department and on what he views as the key responsibilities and deliverables for the division in 2025? This is a key objective of the Minister and is contained in the programme for Government. Will he inform the House as to what the priorities are for the rest of this year?

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The programme for Government significantly expanded my Department’s work on infrastructure and included the establishment of a new infrastructure division. The division's specific responsibilities and deliverables are being progressed as part of the Department's forthcoming statement of strategy, which will go to Government in advance of the summer.

To be of assistance to the Deputy, the key Government commitments that the infrastructure division will be responsible for delivering in the short term are: an early review of the national development plan by July; expanding the Department’s infrastructure expertise to assist delivery through the redeployment of sectoral experts to the Department; the establishment and provision of support to the newly established accelerating infrastructure task force; and preparing a report to Government to identify the barriers to delivery and subsequent actions in order to accelerate the completion of infrastructure across our economy. This report will be prepared on the basis of broad stakeholder engagement, public engagement and a review of international best practice in order to construct a detailed evidential assessment for subsequent action.

This infrastructure delivery work is in addition to the infrastructure division’s ongoing work across its national investment office functions, construction procurement and overseeing certain departmental Votes. The establishment of the division has seen a significant increase in its constituent units' staffing levels. It is led by a deputy Secretary General and comprises an assistant secretary and five units, each of which is led by a principal officer.

On the current breakdown of grades, including vacancies up to an including principal officer, there are five principal officers, 20 assistant principal officers, 18 administrative officers, four higher executive officers, two executive officers and six clerical officers. In addition, five individuals with key sectoral expertise in the delivery of strategic infrastructure and the planning process have been deployed to support the work of division from EirGrid, ESB Networks, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, Uisce Éireann and An Bord Pleanála. Staff from the Department's communications unit are being made available to support the public engagement of the division in delivering its key outputs. This brings the current total headcount for the infrastructure division to 62.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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That is not an insignificant number of staff. Can the Minister confirm that those from State agencies who will be working in the division will continue to be paid by their parent agencies? I assume that will be the case.

The Minister was quoted in The Irish Times yesterday as saying that the acid test will be delivery.

I assume the action plan on infrastructure delivery the Minister referred to will be published side by side with the review of the national development plan in July. That would make a lot of sense. In that action plan and the national development plan, will he commit to ensuring there are deadlines and milestones around key projects? That will be the way in which he and his Government colleagues will be held to account on actual delivery. Will he also confirm what countries he has looked at for best practice on delivering key infrastructure projects when considering setting up this Department? Are there examples we can look to for inspiration?

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I make the point that it is all too slow and that is the basis of the reform process happening in parallel with the work of the review of the national development plan. That is why additionality by itself will not move the dial and why the report on the barriers to infrastructure delivery will be finalised in July. That will work in parallel with the updated review of the national development plan, whether they are published on the same day or not is something we have to sequence. However, the plan is to have both prepared to set out the issues in the area of reforms. As I have said, the acid test will be how we forensically examine the project life cycle. There are countless examples that everyone in this House is aware of, where it is simply taking too long. We are systematically examining all aspects of the project life cycle to try to truncate timelines and do that on a systematic basis to accelerate delivery. As part of the international metric, we are looking at best practice in terms of the World Bank, the IMF and the OECD. We are also interested in looking at common law jurisdictions where there is a lot of commonality on infrastructure delivery, like New Zealand, Australia and the UK. What is also really interesting are the different timelines that exist in many US states that have taken different approaches to infrastructure delivery, many of which are confined by constraints and cannot get things done, and others which have unlocked delivery. Providing that international comparison with the evidence base from published research will help complement the systematic exercise happening domestically around the project life cycle.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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Will the Minister consider finding a way to include people with international experience from outside this jurisdiction in the division? I do not know the identities of the people involved and, in some ways, it is none of my business. I wish them well, because if they do a good job our country succeeds, so we should give this initiative a fair wind. However, a lot of the people involved in the infrastructure division and task force will themselves have considerable experience with delayed projects. I am not apportioning blame here, but they may have been responsible in their own positions for projects we would associate with significant delays. Will the Minister put on the record of the House an example of a project that has been delayed in recent years, and that has frustrated all of us, which he thinks would not have been delayed in the way it was if a division like this and the task force he referred to earlier had been in place? What particular project is his priority over the next few years? He said the acid test will be deliverables. What is he going to deliver? Will he name a project?

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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There are countless projects in the national development plan that are caught in endless delays. This is not about the work I am doing at the centre of Government. It is not about one particular project or pet project that the Deputy or anyone else might have. It is about how we change the life cycle of projects universally, so we accelerate for priorities set out in the national development plan. We are taking the international experience as a key evidence base for how we bring about the reforms that need to be stood up. Whether in housing, energy, transport, or water infrastructure, too many projects are in endless processes where the public have seen indicative allocations many years ago and they have still not seen delivery. It is to give confidence and momentum and show there is a pipeline to the construction sector that can be commenced. This systematic exercise is required. Of course, there are people and different State agencies, bodies or Departments that have been involved in parts of the delays contributing to this. That is why we have a blank canvas in how we change that for the better. That is the measurement and metric of the outworking of the reforms that will advance.