Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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94. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his views on whether the ambitious national development plan can be delivered smoothly; and the measures being put in place to remove obstacles which have delayed projects in the past. [55587/21]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The publication of the National Development Plan (NDP) 2021-30 is accompanied by a continued focus on improving the delivery of investment under Project Ireland 2040. This will mean increasing the efficiency with which investment is delivered and achieving greater value for money within the available budget.

It is important to acknowledge that the majority of public investment projects are delivered on budget and on time and there is a high level of professionalism across the sectors. Reforms are ongoing in governance and broader capability to help ensure successful delivery.

Detailed analysis by my Department, supported by a cross-sectoral working group, has concluded that two new elements are needed to strengthen the assurance process for major public investment projects to provide more structured scrutiny.

These two elements are:

- The introduction of an independent external review of projects over €100m at two major decision gates in the project lifecycle and

- A Major Projects Advisory Group to support my Department in assimilating the outputs from the external reviews in quality assuring the strengthened process.

Membership of the Project Ireland 2040 Delivery Board, comprising Secretaries General of the major capital spending department is also being extended with up to 5 new members to bring additional expert knowledge, independent and regional perspectives, and an enhanced challenge function.

Departments, Agencies and Public Bodies are constantly seeking to ensure that they have the necessary resources in place in terms of staff, structures and skills to deliver on their commitments. There are a number of ongoing measures which seek to further develop the capacity of the public sector over the coming period. These include:

- the establishment of a Commercial Skills Academy in the Office of Government Procurement;

- the establishment of the Public Infrastructure Network (the InfraNet) for those involved in capital project delivery;

- expansion of the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES);

- a range of reforms in the planning area including the establishment of a new Division of the High Court dealing with planning and environmental issues and

- the commissioning of the Supporting Excellence report through the EU Structural Reform Support Programme to review the capability of the public service to deliver the capital programme. On foot of one of the recommendations in that report, my Department convened an Action Team comprising of internal/external experts to tailor and set out a roadmap for implementation of the proposed solutions in more detail. The Supporting Excellence Action Team published their report alongside the National Development Plan 2021-30. The Action Team’s report includes 34 specific actions aimed at supporting excellence in boosting capability in individual sectors; from the centre, and improving co-ordination and guidance to support excellence on a system wide basis.

These reforms, alongside ongoing engagement with the construction sector regarding capacity and innovation, will help ensure the effective delivery of the NDP.