Results 9,581-9,600 of 9,648 for speaker:Jack Chambers

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: The national development plan is the State's medium- to long-term plan for public capital investment. The current national development plan to 2030 provided for public capital investment of €165 billion over the period 2021 to 2030. Government is currently prioritising an early review of this plan, to be published this month, which will set out five-year departmental capital ceilings...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: The Deputy is right. That was an excellent project delivered by Uisce Éireann. His original question connects back to the previous question that was asked. We understand the challenge Uisce Éireann has had each year in knowing its funding position the following year and the effect that has on contractors and their delivery pipelines. We are cognisant of that in the work we are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: I might just come in also. The Minister of State, Deputy Moran, just dealt with one part. Part of the work we are doing is to try to accelerate and improve the project life cycle. Be they full schemes or road projects, they are taking far too long. The Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service, IGEES, is deployed across Government Departments, assessing and evaluating some of the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Sector Pensions (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: As the Deputy said, she is referring to delay in addressing taxes due on retirement and anomalies in deductions of various pension contributions. A review in relation to Ministers who may have been impacted regarding contributions and additional superannuation contributions, ASCs, has been completed. Those identified are being contacted and engagement is ongoing. I understand from the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Sector Pensions (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: Recruitment plans around chargeable excess tax and pension contributions are two separate issues. I agree that what happened is unacceptable. That is why we need a full external audit and that will happen. If someone who has worked in the public service is liable for chargeable excess tax, they have 20 years on a normal basis to spread that liability once they retire. For example, if...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Sector Pensions (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: The external audit will be important in assessing the wider systems processes and compliance with public policy and with the statutory position the NSSO exists within. That work will commence and be completed as soon as practically possible. The tender process is ongoing with this audit for the NSSO. As part of budgetary preparations, we are being clear we want to make permanent,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Procurement Contracts (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: I thank the Deputy. My Department has implemented several safeguards and strategic frameworks to ensure that large-scale public infrastructure contracts are completed on time and within budget. The infrastructure guidelines published in 2023 set the key requirements for project governance over a project’s life cycle. The guidelines cover the evaluation of projects and their proper...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Procurement Contracts (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: I agree. Much work has been done in recent years to embed international best practice into contract management. The wider point has to be acknowledged that if things become too risk averse and no decision is made, then we do not have any delivery and have a long list of hypothetical projects that are not delivered over time. We need a balanced discussion on delivery, in addition to that on...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Procurement Contracts (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: I thank the Deputies for their questions. To speak to Deputy Crowe's point, there has been a significant consultation on Ireland's procurement strategy and we will have a new national procurement strategy in the coming months. The Minister of State, Deputy Emer Higgins, is leading out on that work. Changes are taking place in the EU and we expect them to conclude during Ireland's...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Development Plan (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: The programme for Government reaffirmed its commitment to the shared island fund and committed to increasing the resources available to the fund by a further €1 billion up to 2035. The shared island initiative is co-ordinated by a dedicated unit within the Department of the Taoiseach, with a focus on fostering co-operation and collaboration across the island of Ireland, aiming to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Development Plan (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: I share the Deputy's ambition and focus on this critical investment to help to build peaceful and thriving communities. The fund helps to deliver economic regeneration and transformation across our island and empowers and invests in young people, embedding partnership and collaboration. The PEACEPLUS programme and the shared island fund have driven progress across many areas and we are...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: National Development Plan (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: The Programme for Government sets out the clear ambition to prioritise the delivery of transformative, critical and growth-enhancing infrastructure over the next 5 years. To support these goals, Government has prioritised an early review of the National Development Plan, which is being led by my Department and will be published in July.From February, officials in my Department set about...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Priorities (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: As Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitisation I am responsible for setting the overall capital allocations across Departments and for monitoring monthly expenditure at Departmental level. Each Minister is responsible for deciding on the priority programmes and projects that will be delivered under their remit within the NDP and for setting out the...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Policies (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: In 2023, my Department refreshed the requirements for capital projects in the Infrastructure Guidelines, reducing the number of approval stages prior to implementation from 5 to 3 and streamlining the requirements for major projects, raising the level of cost at which a project is considered a major project to €200m. This allows for projects below this limit to proceed more speedily...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Consultations (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: Feedback from stakeholders and the public is crucial to identifying the key barriers to infrastructure delivery and ultimately improving the delivery of infrastructure. To gather this feedback, I launched a Public Consultation on Accelerating Infrastructure on 6 June. This consultation process ran for four weeks to 4 July. The Consultation invited feedback from stakeholders, industry experts...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: EU Funding (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: I propose to take Questions Nos. 20 and 27 together. Ireland has been allocated €1.15 billion in funding from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) in respect of measures included in our National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). The programme period runs from 2021 to 2026. The RRF is a performance-based instrument with payment contingent on the evidenced achievement of the...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: National Development Plan (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: As Minister for Public Expenditure Infrastructure Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, I am responsible for setting the overall capital allocations across Departments and for monitoring monthly expenditure at Departmental level. The responsibility for the management and delivery of individual investment projects or sectoral policy strategies, within the allocations agreed under the...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Projects (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: I propose to take Questions Nos. 23, 25, 73, 74 and 75 together. The Accelerating Infrastructure Taskforce is a non-statutory taskforce that has been convened to support the work of my Department’s new Infrastructure Division. The Taskforce’s role is to provide strategic guidance and expert input on how the provision of critical economic infrastructure might be accelerated. ...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Strategies (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: As Minister for Public Expenditure Infrastructure Public Service NDP Reform and Digitalisation, I am responsible for setting the overall capital allocations across Departments and for monitoring monthly expenditure at Departmental level. The responsibility for the management and delivery of individual investment projects or sectoral policy strategies, within the allocations agreed under the...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Third Level Fees (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: The policy responsibility for Higher Education rests with D/FHERIS. As part of the annual Estimates process, line Departments will be considering priorities which fall under their aegis. It will be a matter for each Department to set out these priorities ahead of Budget 2026 discussions, which will begin shortly.