Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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1. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence his plans to ensure sufficient funding is provided to resource Joint Induction Training Centre, JITC, Gormanston, Baldonnel, Haulbowline and DFTC infrastructure master plans. [49298/25]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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This question relates to funding, primarily for training locations at Gormanston, Baldonnel, Haulbowline and the DFTC, and the infrastructure master plans for same.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The revised national development plan capital allocation for the defence Vote group for the period 2026 to 2030 is €1.7 billion. This represents an increase of €600 million, or 55%, on the previous baseline of €1.1 billion. For 2026, the defence capital allocation will increase by €85 million, or 40%, to €300 million. Capital investment in defence primarily provides for the renewal, retention and acquisition of major defence equipment and infrastructural platforms - expenditure which enhances and supports our military capabilities and therefore contributes to a more secure and resilient society. The revised capital allocations now provided to defence will assist ongoing efforts at modernising and upgrading our equipment and built infrastructure platforms, and will enable progression on key elements of our commitments within LOA 2 as outlined in the Commission on the Defence Forces report.

The Deputy will note that following the conclusion of the process of agreeing overall departmental allocations, all Departments were requested to consider and outline our sectoral priority projects for delivery over the period to 2030. In that regard, my Department is now prioritising within the revised NDP allocations to meet its sectoral targets and obligations. I have two things to tell the Deputy. On budget day, we will be in a position to publish the projects we intend to deliver on in 2026 so I will have more details that are specific to the Deputy's question then. Also, this autumn we will be expected to publish the sectoral investment plans for the next number of years.

The delivery of infrastructural projects outlined in the infrastructure development plan and the master plan programme is being planned as part of this process. This will encompass consideration of the joint induction training centre in Gormanston, Baldonnel, Haulbowline and DFTC infrastructure master plans and will reflect fully on key factors such as funding availability and contractual commitments to inform future infrastructural needs and priorities.

To make a long story short, we have seen a very significant increase in our capital budget for defence. I welcome that; it was badly needed. It is my Department's job, in conjunction with the Defence Forces, to publish sectoral investment plans to show how we intend to allocate those resources against specific projects and we will do that in the coming weeks.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Tánaiste. For the record, I appreciate there are constraints, given the window we are in, in terms of what the Tánaiste can tell me. What he will tell me is another question, maybe. In general, I put on record that we support increasing defence expenditure provided it is done in a wise and rational way. It is vitally important that we are investing in the areas of most relevance to us as an island nation, and also in building the Defence Forces on a stable foundation through training, equipment and ensuring that, with the recruits we are bringing in, we are able to arrest the slide in establishment numbers in the Defence Forces. We also need to ensure the equipment and the environment in which recruits are trained are to the highest standard. The issues relating to Gormanston have been well publicised. The consensus is that the current location is in a state of disrepair and not fit for purpose. That is a challenge. There is a need to address the training infrastructure for new recruits at the other key locations of the Defence Forces training college, including locations at the Curragh and the Glen of Imaal, but also at Baldonnel and Haulbowline. I will come back to the issues relating to cadets.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I largely agree with Deputy Ó Laoghaire. I welcome and acknowledge the fact that there is, broadly, cross-party support and support across the House for increased spending on defence and security. We will have different views and perspectives, perhaps, on where to prioritise that level of spending. However, we all recognise as a militarily unaligned neutral country that we still have to take our own defence and security capability seriously, particularly when it comes to supporting key infrastructures and having a better understanding of what happens above in our skies and below in our waters. To do all of that, we could have all of the shiny equipment we want but we need to have the men and women of Óglaigh na hÉireann to carry out those tasks and keep our country safe. That is why investing in its training facilities is really important.

In fairness to the Defence Forces and the Department of Defence, I think the work they have undertaken in terms of developing a series of master plans for each installation to future proof them for 20 to 30 years is a sensible way of doing it. It will identify from the outset the infrastructural requirements in line with capability developments for each installation but will also then allow a pipeline of projects to get each of those facilities to where we wish them to be.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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To come back to some of the brass tacks in terms of the training objectives outlined in the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces, there was one objective for the future and another that I hope has been progressed a bit. Will the Tánaiste give an update on it? It was recommended that a new communication information workshop facility at the training centre would commence in 2024. The cadet school headquarters was to be completed in 2023. Will the Tánaiste confirm that those targets set out in the commission's report have been achieved and whether we are currently on schedule? It is proposed by 2027 to have the establishment of an officer training centre comprising the existing cadet school and a new officer candidate school, which would conduct potential late-entry officer courses and Reserve officer courses every two years. That is to be done by 2027. Are we on schedule for the officer training centre, incorporating some of the existing infrastructure, by 2027? Have the communication information services workshop and the new garaging facilities, which were meant to have been completed by this stage, in fact been completed?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I will check that for the Deputy as I do not have that information in my notes and I do not want to mislead the House. I am not aware that they are not on track but I will check and come back to the Deputy on that today.

Yes, we are on track for 2027. As the Deputy rightly said at the outset, I do not want to get ahead of ourselves here in the sense that, in fairness to all parts of the defence infrastructure, we need to go through a rigorous process of which project and when, and that pipeline and prioritisation. We will be in a position to publish the projects we intend to deliver in 2026 very shortly. We will also be in a position a couple of weeks later to publish the sectoral investment plan for defence project by project. That will take us out for the next five years. That work is now under way. I have met the Chief of Staff on this issue together with senior officials in my Department. They are now preparing those investment plans. They are doing so from a position of having a lot of extra capital funding, from a low base - let us be truthful. Even with a lot of additional funding there still needs to be that sense of prioritisation and that work is under way.