Results 161-180 of 9,549 for speaker:Jack Chambers

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (25 Jun 2025)

Jack Chambers: The day-to-day functions of the Minister of State are obviously to do with the OPW.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (25 Jun 2025)

Jack Chambers: No.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (25 Jun 2025)

Jack Chambers: Correct.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (25 Jun 2025)

Jack Chambers: I do not have any information beyond what has been put in the public domain and I am happy to revert to the committee on it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (25 Jun 2025)

Jack Chambers: I am happy to respond to the Deputy and the committee on that issue.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (25 Jun 2025)

Jack Chambers: We have stood up an infrastructure division to centrally drive delivery but also to really examine forensically the project life cycle that exists, which takes too long. The decisions are nearly double in some projects what they were many years ago and that is impeding progress on delivery of capital. We have new infrastructure guidelines that were introduced in the previous Government....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (25 Jun 2025)

Jack Chambers: I am sorry, but who does the Deputy mean?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (25 Jun 2025)

Jack Chambers: Our new infrastructure division engaged with the respective commercial State bodies on who would provide the appropriate expertise on their secondment or redeployment to my Department. If we look at the individuals involved, who are from Transport Infrastructure Ireland, EirGrid, An Bord Pleanála and ESB Networks, their experience has been over decades at senior levels within their...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (25 Jun 2025)

Jack Chambers: The Deputy knows transport is a key priority in the context of the national development plan review we are establishing. It is going to receive a significant uplift in its overall allocation. It is for us to work with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, on how we sequence that capital allocation over a series of years. There will not be an endless amount available, so we need to see what...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 11 - Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (Revised) (25 Jun 2025)

Jack Chambers: As the Deputy may be aware, An Post wrote to the then Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications in January of this year looking for authorisation for a 1.4% increase to pensions and deferred pensions in the An Post superannuation scheme effective from 1 January 2025. The Department then requested concurrence for that on 13 May and that was consented to on 27 May. Any further...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 11 - Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (Revised) (25 Jun 2025)

Jack Chambers: That is something we will have to consider in the context of the medium-term fiscal plan. Pay and numbers policy is a core part of the broader medium-term expenditure framework, which we will have to consider in the next number of weeks. We have had significant growth in the numbers of civil and public servants in the last number of years in light of strong investment in public services, in...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 11 - Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (Revised) (25 Jun 2025)

Jack Chambers: It preceded my time in the Department. The Deputy is correct, yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (25 Jun 2025)

Jack Chambers: I am happy to provide that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (25 Jun 2025)

Jack Chambers: No, I read the articles on it, but I-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (25 Jun 2025)

Jack Chambers: To the Deputy's first point, one piece of work we are doing with the infrastructure task force in the division is on what changes we can make to yield better delivery. Different people have ideas about how critical infrastructure would be labelled, for example. The outworking of our barriers to infrastructure report will set that out. We have reference to the public investment Act in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (25 Jun 2025)

Jack Chambers: Both prior to and after a budget, we have the SWITCH model, which looks at the distribution analysis. That is within the ESRI and looks at the overall distribution of the budget. Separately the well-being framework is published. It is an important piece of work in the context of the outputs that exist. Overall, we monitor a lot of the trends that exist in different Departments and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (25 Jun 2025)

Jack Chambers: I thank the Senator for his question. In the 2020 to 2022 period, construction inflation was in double digit territory and the pipeline of projects that were in progress was not being delivered, constructed or tendered for at that point. There was a significant impact and respective delays. One thing that is emerging from the wider work we are doing on the infrastructure task force is the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (25 Jun 2025)

Jack Chambers: I appreciate the Senator's questions. The well-being framework was launched in 2021. It is a positive and holistic way to assess how Ireland is doing as a country beyond budgetary metrics. The CSO's monitoring of 35 well-being indicators across 11 dimensions is also important in that context. It is progressed within the context of the whole-of-year budget process. We have the national...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (25 Jun 2025)

Jack Chambers: We take the obligations under the climate Act very seriously, in particular the need for public sector decarbonisation. We know the broader risk of Ireland's not progressing many of the initiatives that are there. That is an important component of our work in line with some of the other areas I have referenced. The equality tagging that is happening will make an impact when it is completed...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (25 Jun 2025)

Jack Chambers: Significant changes have been made to the protected disclosure legislation relating to the EU directive on whistleblowers specifically, which is managed by the Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner. In July 2024, it was indicated that the European Commission must furnish a report to the European Parliament assessing the impact of national law transposing the directives. We have...