Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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123. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the status of any review being undertaken by his Department on the national development plan in view of the marked increase in construction inflation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21434/22]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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My Department monitors construction sector trends, including inflation, on an ongoing basis. In addition to reporting on the progress of the portfolio of projects that make up the NDP through the Capital tracker, my Department also publishes the Build Report on construction sector prospects and performance.

As the Deputy will be aware, construction sector inflation represents a risk to delivery of the ambitious public investment programme set out in the NDP. A number of actions have been taken in response.

In January the Office of Government Procurement introduced measures applying to new public works contracts. Under these arrangements the fixed price period is reduced to 24 months and mutual cost recovery is permitted within the fixed price period for material price changes in excess of 15%. The new arrangements also introduce indexation of the materials element of the tender sum from the point at which the tender is submitted to the award of the contract.   

These measures are intended to provide greater certainty to contractors to aid project delivery over the course of a contract.   

While these are short-term actions, my Department is also pursuing medium-term policy initiatives to support resilience and sustainability in the sector. These include increasing the pipeline of apprenticeships and supporting policies to improve productivity. In this regard, my Department has established and funded the Build Digital project which will support enhanced innovation and  increased digital adoption across the Irish construction sector.