Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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416. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the level of foresight or future planning that operates within his Department; who is responsible for long-term planning; the input these individuals or teams have into Departmental policy and practice; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61667/25]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that focusing on long-term strategic priorities and risk management is a key enabler set out in my Department’s Statement of Strategy 2025 - 2028. This long-term perspective is incorporated in workstreams across my Department. Officials in my Department convene at regular intervals to discuss and reflect on longer-term issues and the broader environment to inform our work. This is reviewed strategically through the Management Board’s subcommittee structure. My Department continues to strengthen its approach to long-term planning through the analysis of long-term trends and consideration of how these trends may effect delivery of the Department’s priorities.

Some work of particular relevance as follows:

• My Department published a Medium-Term Expenditure Framework in September. This multi-year public expenditure planning exercise supports assessment of the resource implications of future policy decisions over up to 2030. The report identifies opportunities and risks across 9 cross-cutting policy areas impacting on public expenditure at present and into the future including Infrastructure, Sustainable Economic Growth and Competitiveness, Social Inclusion and the Irish Welfare System, Demographic Change, Skills and Labour Market, Disability, Climate Response, Digitalisation and Technological Change and National Security. A medium-term approach will facilitate enhanced consideration of the impact and time taken to deliver policy changes. It will also enable better planning, effective prioritisation and increased transparency on the costs of delivering critical public services.
• My Department also managed the 2025 National Development Plan Review, which sets out departmental capital ceilings to 2030 and overall capital investment out to 2035. Together with the National Planning Framework, under the remit of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, these plans combine to form Project Ireland 2040, the overarching planning and investment framework for the social, economic and cultural development of Ireland.
• My Department, in collaboration with the OECD, delivered a pilot programme on strategic foresight in 2023. Activities included exploring pilot curricula, delivering workshops, and events to raise awareness of foresight methods and benefit for the civil and public service. Additionally, the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service has hosted discussions and supported research relating to long term trends such as demographic change. The development of Better Public Services, the Public Service Transformation Strategy to 2030, was informed by a comprehensive evidence base which included findings from the OECD policy brief Towards a Strategic Foresight System in Ireland.
• Ongoing cooperation with the Department of Finance regarding “Future Forty: a Fiscal and Economic Outlook to 2065”.