Results 1-20 of 10,028 for speaker:Jack Chambers

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Spending Code (5 Nov 2025)

Jack Chambers: We will reform some of the infrastructure guidelines. Some of that is intended to try to remove some of the excessive time that projects take as they move through the infrastructure life cycle. Also central to wider expenditure control will be a reform of public financial procedures and ensuring for certain Departments that we need to have better fiscal discipline in terms of overall...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Spending Code (5 Nov 2025)

Jack Chambers: The review of the national development plan published in July represents the largest capital investment and injection in our economy in the history of the State. As part of the NDP review, the Government agreed substantive annual sectoral allocations for 2026 to 2030 and overall Government capital ceilings to 2035. The review sets out total public capital investment of €275.4 billion...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (5 Nov 2025)

Jack Chambers: I agree the proposals need to be practical, quick and make an impact on the wider delivery of economic and social infrastructure. The guidelines the Deputy referred to, which have multiple gateways, need to be reformed and changed. There is too much circular analysis, which in many instances does not add value and adds time. That is why there is going to be change. Some of the reforms we...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Procurement Contracts (5 Nov 2025)

Jack Chambers: Following the change of name of my Department upon the formation of the Government, a procurement process was undertaken to replace the Department’s signage at the Government Buildings complex. After the new signage had been installed, it was noted that one word had been misspelt. The external supplier of the signage confirmed that it made this error when producing it and has...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Procurement Contracts (5 Nov 2025)

Jack Chambers: I have set out the position. Very few Ministers are directly sending items for procurement or are directly involved in the procurement process. When this emerged, the facts were established. The signage is being replaced at no additional cost. Ensuring value for money and financial management are critical in all elements of public expenditure management. At a wider level, we are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Procurement Contracts (5 Nov 2025)

Jack Chambers: The relevant Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, is doing extensive work on procurement reform. She has led extensive engagement across the country with SMEs and businesses on how we can have better engagement in the tendering process to have more competition and participation by SMEs. There are reforms happening at EU level as part of that too. All elements of streamlining are our focus so...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Development Plan (5 Nov 2025)

Jack Chambers: I thank the Deputy. We both share the same constituency with a lot of young families. I share her objective of ensuring we develop more places and more opportunities to have childcare facilities and affordable childcare across our community and indeed in communities across the country. The Minister, Deputy Foley, is working with her allocation of €795 million over the next five...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Development Plan (5 Nov 2025)

Jack Chambers: The Deputy and I are in agreement in lots of areas. DART+ West is a project that is not caught in the paralysis, the delays and bureaucracy. It is one that we can try to commence quickly. Where we have opportunities on public transport, we should be using the increased capital allocation from a transport perspective to get projects moving. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is working on the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Development Plan (5 Nov 2025)

Jack Chambers: I know. Quickly.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (5 Nov 2025)

Jack Chambers: In line with the commitments made in the programme for Government, a new infrastructure division has been established within my Department. Led by a deputy secretary general, this division is focused on how the delivery of critical infrastructure across the State can be accelerated. It comprises a blend of experienced civil servants and sectoral experts with direct experience in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (5 Nov 2025)

Jack Chambers: I know the critical need to deliver more beds in the mid-west region. Following the HIQA report, it is important that we do that in the context of the new allocation to the Department of Health and as part of the national development plan. I agree with much of what the Deputy has said. The guidelines, as they are, are probably too conservative and there is a need for reform. That is...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Development Plan (5 Nov 2025)

Jack Chambers: I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 and 33 together. As Minister, I am responsible for setting overall capital allocations across Departments and for monitoring the relative expenditure and delivery at departmental level. In the national development plan review 2021, the Government originally committed €165 billion in capital investment for the period from 2021 to 2030, and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Expenditure Policy (5 Nov 2025)

Jack Chambers: I started listing a number of them that have been published. As I said, there have been 59 papers published since 2024. I am happy to send to the Deputy a list of the ones we have published. Indeed, what has informed most of the work in the Department was the medium term expenditure framework, which did an expenditure analysis of the overall expenditure trends across Government. I am...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Expenditure Policy (5 Nov 2025)

Jack Chambers: It has been the most extensive detailed piece of work across many of the economists in the Department, looking at the expenditure trends for the past five years and at how we make the policy choices and trade-offs over the next five years, acknowledging some of what was referenced in the Department of Finance report yesterday in terms of changing demographics, the impact of climate change and-----

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Expenditure Policy (5 Nov 2025)

Jack Chambers: There are ongoing publications. Indeed, I regularly publish their respective reports. I am not sure who is giving the Deputy that analysis on reports not being published because-----

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Expenditure Policy (5 Nov 2025)

Jack Chambers: -----many of the IGEES reports are published. I am not sure if the Deputy read the medium term expenditure framework. It is a comprehensive, cross-cutting cross-government report as a five-year backward-looking analysis on expenditure trends to inform expenditure for the next five years. It informs a lot of the work that we undertook as part of budget 2026 and will inform the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Development Plan (5 Nov 2025)

Jack Chambers: There are extensive actions across every barrier and the plan is to have the majority of the practical actions being delivered in 2026. Every action we take is about shortening and truncating timelines for the development lifecycle of critical infrastructure, which is simply taking too long. That means we need to increase our risk appetite. We have too much process and too many...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Development Plan (5 Nov 2025)

Jack Chambers: That is why we have corrected that around having over 5% GNI* allocated for critical infrastructure, which is one of the highest levels of infrastructure investment across EU counterparts. It did not take any article in any newspaper for me to prioritise infrastructure delivery. Since the brief was allocated to my Department, we have stood up a task force, developed an evidence base and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Expenditure Policy (5 Nov 2025)

Jack Chambers: I thank Deputy O'Callaghan. Securing value for money is an ongoing priority for the Government. It is at the heart of all decision-making at every stage of policy or programme lifecycles. It is about securing the efficient and effective use of public resources and improving living standards and infrastructure for the people of our country. Policy analysis is a core component of public...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Expenditure Policy (5 Nov 2025)

Jack Chambers: I reject that analysis. Much work across government and in the public service is delivering a significant number of projects on time and on budget. Flippant remarks about particular projects undermine the core work of many people who work across our system. It is important to balance the Deputy's remarks in that context. Since 2024, approximately 59 publications have been authored. In...