Results 1-20 of 9,591 for speaker:Jack Chambers

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...

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: 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 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: Water Services (17 Jul 2025)

Jack Chambers: I thank Deputy Farrell for raising the issue of offshore islands, Deputy Burke for raising the issue of wastewater treatment plants during the noughties and Deputy Crowe for raising the issue of underlying infrastructure. My first role as part of this is to ensure that commercial State bodies, like Uisce Éireann, are appropriately funded over the medium term. That is something we will...

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: 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...