Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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89. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform for an update on the review of the National Development Plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27337/25]

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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112. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform for an update on the National Development Plan Review. [27720/25]

James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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147. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide an update on the National Development Plan Review; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28161/25]

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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153. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to outline the progress that has been made on the National Development Plan review; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27885/25]

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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156. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the status of the review of the National Development Plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27741/25]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister can see this is a very hot topic. I want to ask for an update on the review of the national development plan and for a statement on the matter.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 89, 112, 147, 153 and 156 together.

The programme for Government sets out the clear ambition to prioritise the delivery of transformative, critical and growth-enhancing infrastructure over the next five years.  To support these goals, Government has prioritised an early review of the national development plan, which is being led by my Department.

From February, officials in my Department set about identifying the parameters, priorities and critical milestones for the review. This was done to support the ambition of the review to improve our infrastructure, especially housing, water, energy, transport and health digitalisation.

In early April, I secured Government approval to commence the review process following which Departments were written to, to advise on the Government's approved approach to the review. The core focus of the review will be to ensure that supporting economic infrastructure can be prioritised to deliver the tens of thousands of additional homes that are required and to support our broader competitiveness.

Throughout April and early May, Departments have prepared their funding submissions and this has been followed by bilateral engagement between my Department and individual spending Departments to assess investment plans and programmes. This series of bilateral engagements commenced at official level and is currently continuing and has commenced fully at ministerial level.

Alongside the review process, Departments have also been asked to consider whether their planned programmes meet the criteria for designated environmental projects to receive funding from the infrastructure, climate and nature fund. An amount of €3.15 billion is available from the fund out to 2030 and is part of the overall funding envelope. In addition, a wider assessment is being carried out around the climate impact of the funding as part of the NDP and that will be published alongside the review document in July.

I am also launching a public consultation on the review which will be open for submissions until 26 June. The consultation is an opportunity for individuals, Members or, indeed, organisations to share their views on national priorities for public capital investment. I will also be chairing a session on infrastructure prioritisation and delivery at the national economic dialogue, where interested stakeholders will have the opportunity to share their views across many sectors.

Intensive engagement at both official and ministerial level has commenced and the intention is to publish a review document in July that will feature five year capital allocations to Departments over the period 2026 to 2030 and overall capital ceilings to 2035.

While particular allocations obviously have yet to be agreed, the objective is to support what is set out in the programme for Government and, in particular, the delivery of thousands of additional homes and to boost our overall competitiveness.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. I am sure others who come after me will speak in the same vein. There is very significant interest in this review because every area is ambitious for investment and development. I could speak about a number of projects in my area, including the Kilmoon Cross to Rath roundabout road project, but I specifically want to raise the issue of Navan rail. This is an excellent project on the basis of all the measurements that matter. It will transform County Meath economically, socially and environmentally because it will take thousands of cars off the roads. I welcome this project, which has been invested in and funded up to the planning phase but not to construction. I firmly believe it needs increased investment before 2030 to ensure it can be delivered in the quickest possible timeframe, uninterrupted and with no delays after planning. Hopefully, we will secure planning in the quickest possible timeframe too.

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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We are all waiting to see how the national development plan will proceed. Obviously, all of our areas require a lot of investment in infrastructure. The infrastructural deficit we have, especially across the west, is something I have raised with the Minister quite a number of times. We also need to look at procurement and how it can be used to benefit areas, particularly those more rural and isolated areas where different types of jobs are not as easy to come be. If we are spending a certain amount above a certain threshold, we need to look at introducing social clauses into the contracts as well to ensure that a certain number of apprentices on board and a certain number of people who live locally hired for these projects. We could thereby ensure that the money benefits local economies and that people can stay within their local areas.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputies for raising those issues. I am not going to get into the distribution of different projects or priorities today. I will say, however, that one of the areas of emphasis in the review of the national development plan is transport infrastructure. I am engaging with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, on that. The focus is to identify what projects can be delivered. I know there is a great deal of interest in Meath in the particular project Deputy O'Rourke referenced. There are many projects in other parts of the country that are critically important in terms of both the delivery of public transport and helping to fulfil broader climate objectives.

Deputy Farrell is absolutely right that there is a particular deficit regarding infrastructure objectives in parts of the west. The continued uplift we are giving in the context of the renewed national development plan will help support infrastructure objectives for the west of Ireland. We are reviewing the national procurement policy presently. The Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, is leading out on that work, which we will be progressing over the coming months. That will dictate the overall framework about how procurement decisions are made across Government contracts.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for that answer. I will continue to fight the case for Navan rail. The Minister will appreciate many of the arguments we will make.

On housing delivery, I met recently with officials in Meath County Council. They have, including in their most recent county development plan, consistently argued the case that there is a real cap on development in County Meath in residential terms. They believe that the process, allowing for the lag with the CSO figures from the census, means that, in effect, Meath County Council, consistent with the parameters with the national planning framework and the national development plan, can deliver for a population of 20,000 more than it is being allowed to. The county council is engaging extensively with the Department of housing on that matter, but it obviously has a clear impact on how infrastructure investment might be prioritised. I bring this matter to the Minister's attention to make him aware of it, but also to ask him to engage with the Minister for housing on it as well.

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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Will the Minister provide an update on how his Department is coming at this review? Is it that the Department was ready for such a review or did pressure come about as a result of the announcement that there would be a review? Does he think that all the information required will be available when it is needed? It is also welcome that the Minister is saying there will be public consultation. That is always very welcome. As he will know, when we talk about infrastructure in the west, the problem is that we have not had investment in the basic infrastructure and that this can have an impact on everything. We consistently still have health centres in Conamara that do not have access to phone lines. We need to get that sorted because we need investment in this basic infrastructure.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputies for their respective contributions. On Deputy O'Rourke point on the need for much more additional headroom for Meath County Council, the new national planning framework provides additional headroom to local authorities to zone more land to drive increased housing supply. The current baseline position is not at all near what we require to deliver the quantum of housing we in this House all want to see delivered. The need to accelerate the outworking of that will be really important in the period ahead. I take the Deputy's other point on the opportunities around transport-oriented development.

In response to Deputy Farrell, the Department has been very clear around the programme for Government commitment on an earlier view of the national development plan. There is a very strong team in the investment office within the Department that has been ready to conduct this work. We have received submissions from all other Departments around the priorities and the extensive uplift they all want. We have to manage and co-ordinate that. There is always more ambition than there is possibility around what can be allocated, but we are working through that. The Deputy is right that we need to make sure there is a focus on basic infrastructure, particularly water, energy, and, in certain instances in rural Ireland, transport, in order that we can meet the broader industrial opportunities that are there if we invest and accelerate the deliver of that. I appreciate the contributions of the Deputies in respect of this matter.