Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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16. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in respect of his responsibility for infrastructure delivery, his plans to ensure that all other Government Departments will receive enough funding for essential infrastructure projects and services in the next budget and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40612/26]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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69. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in respect of his responsibility for infrastructure delivery, his plans to ensure that planned investments in necessary infrastructure projects and services by other Departments will not be reversed or cancelled due to newly proposed overspending rules by his Department and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40613/26]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Minister has indicated that a levy of more than €446 million will be imposed on Departments to pay for an overspend in the Department of Education and Youth yet he suggests that this will not really have any impact because we are going to spend more next year anyway. In reality, will it not mean that there will be less money available than was projected for multiple Departments to undertake key infrastructure or projects or to provide services?

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 and 69 together. We agreed a medium-term fiscal and structural plan in December of last year that provides for significant uplifts and expenditure over the coming years with gross voted spending to reach €147.3 billion by 2030. The key element of the expenditure strategy underpinning the gross voted expenditure ceilings included in the plan was the prioritisation of capital with ceilings agreed as part of the NDP plan review and an additional increase in capital from 2028 onwards. Over €65 billion in capital investment has been delivered in the past five years out to 2025 and €19.1 billion was allocated for capital investment in budget 2026, which was an increase of €2.6 billion or nearly 16% over 2025. The capital ceiling will grow by a further €1.2 billion or 6.3% in 2027 to €20.3 billion. In total, the Government has committed €275 billion under the NDP from 2026 to 2035. We have published sectoral investment plans to deliver infrastructure at scale year after year. This can be achieved. This will strengthen co-ordination and build capacity in the construction sector.

The significant investment made by Government to deliver housing and fundamental infrastructure has been complemented by a considered programme of reform to address challenges within the infrastructure delivery ecosystem. The Government has already made significant efforts to orient itself towards infrastructure co-ordination delivery. The NDP review and sectoral investment plans are providing multi-annual funding certainty and a strong pipeline of projects. My Department has been tasked with identifying and addressing the most significant barriers to delivery. The infrastructure division in my Department has taken a stronger oversight and monitoring role for this action plan with all commitments by quarter 1 of 2026 fully delivered. This is a proactive role that allows my own Department to take action where barriers arise in the delivery of critical infrastructure programmes. We have published and brought the Critical Infrastructure Bill through the Dáil and it is now progressing in the Seanad. I can come back when I have further time but the figure of €446 million is all on current expenditure. We have completely protected capital expenditure lines so capital expenditure lines are not affected by the efficiency levy.

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the students and teachers from Tonragee National School all the way from Achill in County Mayo. We hope they enjoy their day in the Dáil. They are here with the Minister of State, Deputy Alan Dillon.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Is there enough then to deliver the critical infrastructure that we know we need? I will give one example where I cannot understand frankly why the money was not made available, namely, the case of The Complex. We need arts infrastructure. We had the Government bringing in stuff yesterday about drinking on the streets because we need greater vibrancy in our city centres and I agree that we do, so how could the Government let The Complex close down in Dublin's north inner city when all they were looking for was €6 million and they offered a win-win? It said that rather than sell it to a developer that was going to get rid of an art space, if the Government gave it €6 million on top of the €4 million it already had, we could retain a multidisciplinary art space and build social and affordable housing on top of it, so we would get a win-win. We would get a community, arts and cultural space, which we badly need, rather than allow it to be lost, and we would get social and affordable housing in the city centre for €6 million. Instead despite the promises of the Minister's predecessor to that community, it has been allowed to close down. By the way, it is not yet over, so it is something the Minister could reconsider.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome all the people from Achill who are here and I hope they have a very good day. Both my parents from County Mayo so I always welcome everyone from that great county. We will not talk about the All-Ireland but we are still waiting-----

Kevin Moran (Longford-Westmeath, Independent)
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Not with Westmeath.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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We will see how it gets on at the weekend. I understand the issue around the arts complex. There was extensive engagement between Dublin City Council, the Arts Council and the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport. We have significantly increased the capital allocation to the Department in recent years, which has to manage its overall location in that context. Part of that relates to the extent to which the local authority would prioritise it, for example, in the engagement with those who run The Complex in particular. If the Deputy looks at our record, uplift of capital across the arts community has significantly increased in recent years and overall funding for arts has significantly increased in recent years. It is a decision of those who are prioritising within the Department, the Arts Council and Dublin City Council, which, obviously, has an important interface in running services.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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This is the game of pass the parcel that led to The Complex being closed down. If one goes to the Department, it says that it would love to leave The Complex open but it cannot buy properties, which is something I did not know, so what the Minister just said is complete nonsense. The Department is not allowed to buy properties. Dublin City Council said basically it did not have the money for it. The Minister is the Minister for infrastructure. We need housing, social and affordable housing in particular, and we need arts and cultural spaces, which are being closed down left, right and centre in the city centre. That building has not been sold. Apparently, the sale has not gone through so it is not over yet. That space could be saved and we could get a site for social and affordable housing for the small figure of €6 million. I suggest that the Minister, as Minister with responsibility for infrastructure, cracks the whip and says that it is madness to let this thing go and that we should save that site and save The Complex for all the artists and the local community and to deliver social and affordable housing on the site.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I provide an overall allocation to different Departments, which have to prioritise within that, and that applies to the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport-----

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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It cannot buy stuff.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Similarly, Dublin City Council has a very significant annual budget and has to prioritise across its objectives in any given year. The overall increase in capital expenditure and day-to-day expenditure for arts has significantly increased in recent years, and rightly so. I support the objective to continue to improve that in the years ahead but it is an issue between Dublin City Council and the Department in the context of that particular proposal. We provide the overall funding. We have provided multi-annual certainty to the Department and it concerns how it prioritises that in the context of what is available.