Tony McCormack (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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114. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he agrees that it will be necessary to make choices and prioritise investments in sectors and programmes that boost our economic growth and competitiveness, while providing value for money; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27986/25]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government recognises that delivery of essential infrastructure is a key driver in attracting and retaining investment in Ireland, growing our economy, fostering regional development, delivering on our housing targets and achieving our ambitious climate goals. To delivery this essential infrastructure efficiently, it will be necessary to make choices and prioritise investments in sectors and programmes that boost our economic growth and competitiveness, while providing value for money.

To accelerate the delivery of infrastructure, the Government has prioritised an early review of the National Development Plan, that will be published in July. Competitiveness is at the heart of the Review, of which the core focus is to fund the supporting infrastructure to service 300,000 additional homes by 2030 and to boost our international competitiveness. This will be done by improving our infrastructure, especially housing, energy, water, transport and health digitalisation.

Given that the scale of the funding requirements in the priority sectors alone could use the entirety of the additional available funding, prioritisation will be required to deliver on the ambition for the Review.

I am currently carrying out a series of bilateral engagements with other Ministers to assess their spending plans and funding requirements with a view to prioritising investment in sectors and programmes that maximise the use of state resources in line with the Review priorities and the requirement for timely and cost-effective delivery.