Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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286. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his views and vision for the upgrading of basic infrastructure here in order to better cater for the increased population; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54725/21]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Project Ireland 2040 sets out the Government's vision for the upgrading of basic infrastructure here in order to better cater for the increased population.

Achieving a high quality stock of infrastructure throughout Ireland will require sustained and elevated levels of investment over the long-term. This level of investment cannot happen overnight or even within one ten year plan. While it is guided and co-ordinated at a national and regional level, it must be delivered at a local and sectoral level.

With the new National Development Plan (NDP) published on 4th October, 2021, the Government is taking another major step in ensuring that Ireland maintains and further develops its infrastructure stock to the highest standard throughout the country.

Project Ireland 2040 (PI2040) includes the National Planning Framework (NPF), which sets the overarching spatial strategy for the next twenty years, along with the NDP, which sets out the ten year investment strategy. Ensuring close alignment between the two is necessary in order to accommodate a projected one million additional people by 2040.

PI2040 provides an opportunity to successfully accommodate that growth by investment in our rural towns and villages, and by ensuring the cities of Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford grow at twice the pace of Dublin through sustained investment.

By delivering compact growth within our rural villages, our towns and our cities, it will become possible to deliver more public infrastructure to more people, e.g. public transport, broadband, housing, health and a broad range of social, cultural, sporting and community services.

The NDP sets out funding to underpin key Government priorities. Specifically, allocations will support the realisation of critical goals laid out in Housing for All and will enable a step-change in investment to ameliorate the effects of climate change. In addition to physical infrastructure, a significant element of the investment set out in the NDP will support enterprise development, research, innovation and science. This investment will be crucial to support the additional 660,000 jobs projected for 2040.

In addition, the impact of Covid-19 and other crises have demonstrated the vulnerability of society and the economy to external shocks. In this context, national security is a fundamental policy goal for the Government. This includes the key components of defence, foreign policy and justice. Other policy goals, whether social, economic or environmental, cannot be achieved without the stability achieved through effective security and defence policies supported with appropriate capital resources.

Finally, as part of Phase 1 of the review of the National Development Plan, an analysis of alignment with the NDP and NPF was carried out by the National Investment office in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. This paper was published in April 2021 and can be found on gov.ie/2040.