Results 201-220 of 9,462 for speaker:Jack Chambers

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (29 May 2025)

Jack Chambers: I thank the Deputy. As she is aware, a broad range of factors influence staff recruitment and retention. As a result of Ireland's significant economic growth, unemployment is low and labour market conditions remain tight. Labour and skills shortages are presenting recruitment and retention challenges for employers across the labour market, including the civil and public service, as the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (29 May 2025)

Jack Chambers: I will follow up in the next round.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (29 May 2025)

Jack Chambers: As I was going to say before I had to conclude, there is a local bargaining provision that allows management and unions to negotiate changes to pay and terms and conditions up to a maximum of 3% of pay costs for the relevant grade. The first instalment under this provision, equivalent to 1% of pay costs, is due to be implemented from 1 September 2025 and negotiations are commencing at local...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (29 May 2025)

Jack Chambers: Many public servants working here are involved in the bargaining process, which the trade unions were centrally involved in for the current public pay agreement. That collective pay agreement has brought industrial peace to our country relative to many other countries in Europe and elsewhere. It is important for that collaboration to continue. The emphasis of the current public sector...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Ethics in Public Office (29 May 2025)

Jack Chambers: I propose to take Questions Nos. 84, 132 and 136 together. I thank the Deputy and the other Deputies who have also raised this matter. As Deputy O'Callaghan will be aware, we are committed in the programme for Government to updating the ethics in public office legislation. This follows a wide-ranging review of the legislative framework for ethics in public life that my Department...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Services Provision (29 May 2025)

Jack Chambers: My Department works to serve the country, its people and the Government by delivering well-managed and well-targeted public spending, delivered through modernised, effective and accountable public services. The process around outsourcing set out in the public service pay agreement states that where outsourcing is being considered in respect of an existing service, both official and staff...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Services Provision (29 May 2025)

Jack Chambers: All public bodies are obliged to treat public funds with care and to ensure the best value for money is obtained wherever public money is spent or invested. It is the responsibility of the relevant Department to ensure procedures are in place for compliance with all required procedures within the Department or office or the bodies under its aegis. It is a matter for each Accounting Officer...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Services Provision (29 May 2025)

Jack Chambers: Some of the examples the Deputy references are shocking. Where there is maltreatment or misuse of public funds, it should be reported to the Accounting Officer, Department and line Minister involved. There are often service level agreements that underpin the money put forward for the service to be provided. If it is not being provided or the public good is being undermined or not followed...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Staff (29 May 2025)

Jack Chambers: I make the point that it is all too slow and that is the basis of the reform process happening in parallel with the work of the review of the national development plan. That is why additionality by itself will not move the dial and why the report on the barriers to infrastructure delivery will be finalised in July. That will work in parallel with the updated review of the national...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Staff (29 May 2025)

Jack Chambers: There are countless projects in the national development plan that are caught in endless delays. This is not about the work I am doing at the centre of Government. It is not about one particular project or pet project that the Deputy or anyone else might have. It is about how we change the life cycle of projects universally, so we accelerate for priorities set out in the national...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Bodies (29 May 2025)

Jack Chambers: The construction sector group has a distinct and separate mandate. It continues to do excellent work. We have identified, and the Deputy will have seen this in her broad engagement with people in south Conamara or, indeed, with stakeholders across the economy, that there are many barriers impeding delivery. The task force’s central mandate is to have a short period to identify these...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Bodies (29 May 2025)

Jack Chambers: I do not disagree with much of what the Deputy said. There are often too many reports which contain endless recommendations. We have tried to change our approach to how this process is working. It is how we can identify high-impact reforms that are implementable and timebound that will make an objective difference. That has been the central mandate of the task force. That is why there...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Staff (29 May 2025)

Jack Chambers: The programme for Government significantly expanded my Department’s work on infrastructure and included the establishment of a new infrastructure division. The division's specific responsibilities and deliverables are being progressed as part of the Department's forthcoming statement of strategy, which will go to Government in advance of the summer. To be of assistance to the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Bodies (29 May 2025)

Jack Chambers: I launched the new accelerating infrastructure task force on Friday 16 May. At the task force's first meeting, the terms of reference were agreed and there was a discussion of the work plan of the Department's newly established infrastructure division over the coming months. Primarily, the role of the task force is to provide its members' expertise and guidance to assist my Department's...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Artificial Intelligence (29 May 2025)

Jack Chambers: I propose to take Questions Nos. 92, 119 and 143 together. My department recently published the ‘Guidelines for the Responsible use of Artificial Intelligence in the Public Service’. These guidelines compliment and inform strategies regarding the adoption of innovative technology and ways of working already underway in the public service, and seek to set a high standard for...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure Policy (29 May 2025)

Jack Chambers: Budget 2025, announced by Government last October, set-out a planned gross expenditure envelope of €105.4bn. This funding has been provided to deliver on Government priorities and commitments, including continuing the delivery of a National Development Plan (NDP) which is providing the vital infrastructure we need to support our future economic and social progress. This funding is...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: National Development Plan (29 May 2025)

Jack Chambers: The Review of the National Development Plan (NDP) will allocate funding to update capital expenditure ceilings out to 2035. The Review will encompass all public capital investment to 2035 and allocate the funds arising from the Apple Escrow account, the proceeds of bank share sales as well as funding from the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund. In total, around €97 billion in...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Priorities (29 May 2025)

Jack Chambers: I propose to take Questions Nos. 96, 106, 146, 158 and 160 together. In line with the commitments made in the Programme for Government, I recently announced a series of actions to accelerate the delivery of strategic infrastructure in Ireland, including the creation of a new Infrastructure Division in my Department. This new Division will focus on accelerating infrastructure...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Information and Communications Technology (29 May 2025)

Jack Chambers: As the Deputy will be aware my Department is involved in leading the development of a new National Digital Strategy which will be published by the end of this year. It is my intention that the e-inclusion strategy to ensure no one is left behind in this digital society, will be an important and integral dimension to this new strategy which will include a range of related and specific...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Small and Medium Enterprises (29 May 2025)

Jack Chambers: My department has taken a number of steps in recent years to promote the participation of SMEs in public procurement and help them navigate the procurement process. In 2023 my department published Circular 05/2023: Initiatives to assist SMEs in Public Procurement, which includes policy measures aimed at assisting SMEs to access public procurement opportunities. My department has also...