Results 261-280 of 9,898 for speaker:Jack Chambers

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: Water Services (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: In line with the commitment in the programme for Government, my Department has prioritised an early review of the national development plan, which will be published in July. The aim of the review is to improve our infrastructure, particularly water, energy and transport. Prioritisation of these sectors is necessary to deliver hundreds of thousands of additional homes and to boost our...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Water Services (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: Water and wastewater infrastructure is critical to deliver the homes that we need and to deal with the broader infrastructure deficit that exists relating to water infrastructure more generally. What we are doing as part of that is prioritising it. The Exchequer funding of what is now Uisce Éireann significantly increased in recent years but we recognise that, to meet the level of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Planning Issues (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: I can continue later.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Planning Issues (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: Private wires are an essential part of developing the wider need on energy and digital infrastructure. What I was about to say was that some of the lengthy development cycles and regulatory complexity and fragmentation across regulatory bodies is extremely problematic. Too much uncertainty and delay is driven by legal, planning and consenting processes. There is also the issue of capacity...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Planning Issues (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: If we look at the national planning framework and all the different existing policies, it is about complementing housing delivery with community infrastructure and social infrastructure. We have had significantly increased supports for the development of social infrastructure across the State. If we look back to the last Government, we had one of the biggest interventions around developing...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Planning Issues (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: In April of this year, I announced Government had agreed a series of actions to accelerate the delivery of strategic infrastructure in Ireland. This work, led by my Department, will first identify and assess the barriers impeding the delivery of critical infrastructure across many sectors, including electricity, energy, transport and water. We will then publish an action plan which will...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Protected Disclosures (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: Obviously, the European Commission presented a report in July of last year. The review will be launched this year and finalised next year. That wider evaluation will be essential in order to monitor the transposition of the directive into law in Ireland and in other member states. It will provide an opportunity for a wider input regarding the reforms that may be required as part of the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Expenditure Policy (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: The overall process on the national development plan is continuing. We have approximately €20 billion to allocate across critical areas in our economy. We know with the Department of housing that continued investment in public infrastructure for housing is central to this process. We have set out the priority areas of housing, energy, transport and water infrastructure in...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Expenditure Policy (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: I share that objective. That is why giving that additional scope to Ministers across their respective policy areas to invest in critical infrastructure is essential as part of the national development plan. We are at a point of significant economic uncertainty and this Government is clearly setting out that we want to seriously increase our overall investment in critical infrastructure,...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Protected Disclosures (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: I thank the Deputy for this question. On 3 July 2024 the European Commission presented a report on the transposition of the EU Whistleblower Directive 2019/1937. This report stated that a review of the directive, which is referred to in Article 27(3), would be finalised no later than 2026. This review or evaluation will assess the functioning of the directive and consider the need for...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Protected Disclosures (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: Everybody should be protected, particularly when they raise wrongdoing with public bodies. I think we all share that objective across the House. We have two areas of legislation between 2014 and 2022, some of which was the transposition of EU legislation and also policy direction in an Irish context. We have different points now in the context of the European review, which is happening,...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Expenditure Policy (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: I thank Deputy Farrell. Some €106.4 billion in gross voted funding is being provided in 2025 to deliver on Government priorities and commitments. This significant level of investment reflects the priorities of budget 2025 and this Government’s commitment to deliver continued improvements in our infrastructure and enhance our existing public services to build a stronger future....

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...