Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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662. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the amount of National Development Plan expenditure that has been ringfenced for resilience and climate adaptation measures in each year since 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47528/25]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government 2025 set out the clear ambition to prioritise the delivery of transformative, critical and growth-enhancing infrastructure over the next five years. Ensuring this infrastructure is resilient to our changing climate is a key consideration. In the recently published National Development Plan 2026-2035, Ireland's long-term strategic investment plan, Government has prioritised increased investment levels in water, energy, transport and housing to meet the housing needs of our population and economy and support future economic growth to improve the living standards of the people of Ireland.

The NDP Review sets out total investment of €275.4 billion over the period 2026 to 2035. As part of the review, each measure proposed for funding from this overall investment was subjected to a climate and environmental assessment as part of the Review process. Departments were required to perform a high-level, qualitative self-assessment to determine the potential impact every spending proposal put forward may have on each of a range of outcomes, one of which was climate adaptation. This consideration also receives continued focus throughout the entirety of the project lifecycle. For instance, under the Infrastructure Guidelines, Climate and Environmental Performance are now an explicit element at the Preliminary Business Case stage. Each project’s resilience to the impacts of climate change is therefore an important consideration as part of the appraisal process.

The next stage of the NDP Review will involve Ministers preparing sectoral investment plans to set out the delivery of projects and programmes within their overall allocations, having regard to their sectoral priorities and wider priorities including climate and environmental goals. Through these projects and this level of public investment, Departments will be enabled to deliver on the objectives of our Climate Action Plan and our National Adaptation Framework over the period to 2030. My Department does not hold central policy responsibility for climate adaptation, and does not ringfence funds for this purpose.

In terms of expenditure allocated to resilience and climate adaptation measures, my Department has been reporting the level of climate-related expenditure annually since 2019. The identification and classification of expenditure is validated and updated every year before being published in the Revised Estimates Volume for Public Services (REV). Since 2024, this classification has considered a broader range of climate and environmental outcomes than emissions reductions alone, and now outlines the allocation of expenditure with an expected impact in relation to biodiversity, pollution, water and marine resources, the circular economy, and on adaptation and resilience. While adaptation was therefore not systematically captured in the assessment in relation to the years 2020-2023, analysis in REV 2024 showed that expenditure allocated to measures considered likely to be favourable to adaptation & resilience was estimated at €2.64 billion in that year. In REV 2025, this allocation was estimated to be in the region of €3.92 billion. These amounts include funding for flood risk management, forecasting and prevention, retrofitting of infrastructure for current and future climate impacts, international climate finance, funding provided to Met Éireann for the provision of climate services, adaptive and sustainable farming practices, and research programmes across a number of Departments and State bodies. All outputs of this work are public, and available on the Department’s website at gov.ie. The anticipated allocation to adaptation favourable measures in 2026 will be outlined in a similar report this year.