Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach and I welcome the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, to the Chamber. I thank him for the report he has given on what is a very significant plan and fund of nearly €200 billion which has shaped that vision and strategy for this country across so many spheres of our life and society. This will have a substantial impact on how life is conducted in the country.

One of the areas which the Minister touched upon in his speech was on improved delivery capacity. Indeed on 10 February, only a couple of weeks ago, we had an update on investment projects and the programmes tracker, and the updating of the MyProjectIreland interactive map and tracker, which is very welcome. Deliverability of all these items is key. I could go onto my laptop this morning in preparation for this debate. I can touch on it where there are little pin drops and by pressing on them, I can find out where these projects stand at this very moment.

That is very welcome but I do not need this particular app on my phone or laptop to tell me how projects are going. I need only look at my own local paper, the Meath Chronicle and Cavan and Westmeath Heraldthis morning where it talks about frustration growing over delivery of a new school building. That is one of many because that school in Enfield is where the principal, the board of management and the parents are now going to the local paper to talk about the fact that their 1,000 student school is still not ready and is no further on in its progress. What is really frustrating about that is when I looked at the update of Project Ireland 2040 back in 2019 in respect of that post-primary school for Enfield, I see that the box said that the school was to open in 2020. On front of my local paper in 2023 we have frustration expressed that it is no further on.

That is not unique because the Mercy Convent National School, which is 113 years old and accommodates approximately 400 students, has approval which was granted in 2021, but is now back in the queue with some 1,300 other schools. That is the frustration in bringing the vision of that plan and ensuring its deliverability is actually recognised. That is just in only one sphere which is education.

I am encouraging the Minister now in his new role to ensure, in respect of the billions of euro which are being allocated, that a rocket is put up the ass of some of the people around this country to ensure that we get deliverability because it is very frustrating.

One can take, for example, the urban regeneration and development fund, which will do so much good and will rejuvenate towns and cities. I see the projects in Cork, Galway or in Dublin. We see the fact that it comes to regional centres like my own home town of Navan, and that hundreds of millions of euro have been allocated to thwart that blight of dereliction. We need, however, to see an impetus put behind this where, at a macro-level, we are allocating funds which is greatly welcomed, but I want to see the results of that happening. There is an onus on the Department to ensure that those charged at a statutory level on the ground are doing their job. There is little point in us allocating this money if that deliverability is not coming back.

I welcome, in the context of the national development plan, that the Navan rail line was included in the revised plan for design and planning. That is of great importance. In the past two months it has been included in the revised greater Dublin area transport strategy. That will do a great amount of good for regional areas such as my own.

We need to also ensure that the funding is now frontloaded. I have met with Irish Rail's CEO, Jim Meade, twice in the past two weeks and he is ready to go with planning and to ensure that he will have a planning file ready within 18 months to progress that. We need to see ourselves in government play our part to ensure that happens.

The Minister has set out a very significant number of schemes and work that is occurring within the national development plan, but I return to the point about deliverability. If we do not have that, it does not give us any hope in the context of the paper that this plan is written on.

I refer to those areas, education which I have mentioned here, urban regeneration and transport. The Minister has also touched upon the increased costs in construction. We saw from the Minister’s own Department and that of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael McGrath, the record amount of money that was allocated in sports funding, where some €150 million of sports capital grants were allocated across the country in the past year. We need to ensure that these projects are up and running but they are faced with those equal challenges. I hope that when the Minister sits down and looks at that in the coming year, that the same kind of funding will be put behind that, if not more so, to ensure they achieve their particular goals.

We face challenges in the health sector which we have seen over Christmas and the new year. I again put this challenge to the HSE, not to the Minister who ensures that there is money going into the sector. I put a challenge in respect of the deliverability by the statutory agencies which are charged with doing their job, such as the HSE. It takes the lion’s share of funding by way of taxpayers’ money in this country. I refer to the deliverability and plans it wants to put in place. I very much wonder about this when we see the chaos in Limerick because of HSE plans which closed ancillary services in Clare and elsewhere, which then put such pressure on Limerick. What is it doing now but the same again in areas such as my own town in Navan, where it is trying to force a closure of an accident and emergency department. We then saw over a dozen ambulances backed up at Christmas time in the accident and emergency department in Drogheda.

The point here is that at Government level, we are ensuring that the funding is going in but those charged on behalf of the State to implement the funding which the Government is directing are not doing their job to the adequate standard. Sometimes, we doff our cap and say that these are the experts who are charged with doing that. They are answerable, however, to the Minister and to these Houses and if they are not doing their job they should be called out in these Houses. I am particularly frustrated with the manner in which bodies such as the HSE, who are taking such a lion’s share of the taxpayers’ funds in this country, are doing their job.

I thank the Minister for being here and for setting out the ambitious plan but I reiterate my point that the key to the success of this plan is that we have accountability and deliverability across all sections in receipt of these funds. I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach.