Infrastructure and Capital Investment Programme

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 October 2016

Wednesday, 19 October 2016

Questions (24)

Bernard Durkan

Question:

24. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the extent to which he and his Department have identified the most important elements of infrastructural deficiency in areas such as housing, health, transport, communications or education that are most likely to affect economic performance in the future; the extent of his ongoing proposals to address such deficiencies with a view to ensuring maximisation of employment opportunities throughout the economy and achievable through improved infrastructure; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30965/16]

Oral answers (6 contributions)

Deputy Bernard J. Durkan

This question asks the extent to which the Minister can identify the most important elements of infrastructural deficiency in areas such as housing, health, transport, communications and education that are most likely to affect economic performance in future and whether it may be possible to address them.

Deputy Paschal Donohoe

This has happened in the past according to submissions that Departments made to my Department. For example, the Department of Education and Skills would highlight what it believes to be the main educational priorities, and the same would happen for other Departments. We are looking to operate differently with this capital review process. My Department will outline our long-term infrastructural advantages and what we believe to be our long-term infrastructural deficiencies. In addition to the feedback I will receive from Departments, my objective is for my Department to centrally generate a more formal view on this matter; we will use both of these to fund choices made on additional capital projects or in pulling forward existing capital commitments. It is important that this is done. Each Minister does a fine job of arguing what he or she believes to be in his or Department's interest but it will be helpful to have a more centrally generated view of how we can best allocate the resources of the taxpayer.

Deputy Bernard J. Durkan

I thank the Minister. Has he examined individual Departments with a view to liaising with Ministers so they can identify their priorities and concerns for achieving their specific targets that may be impeded by a lack of infrastructure? What has been discovered if that is so? Has the Minister received that information? For example, what is needed in the Departments dealing with housing, health and education, as they are three important issues?

Deputy Paschal Donohoe

Yes, I have. In the Estimates process that we went through for the 2017 budget, I asked Departments to specify, where possible, over a three-year timeframe what would be their particular capital needs. Not all Departments were able to do it but most were and the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, put forward a view on the capital needs required for the third and fourth level sectors in coming years. My objective is that by putting in place a more formal review of the capital plan, every Department will have the opportunity to do this.

As we put together this process, I want a project-based approach to emerge. We should not go back to the point where we say there is a certain amount available to complete a project. The projects chase the money in those cases and the costs would increase. At other points in our history, we spent more on such projects than we should have. That is why I want to use a project-based approach to making decisions on the funding I referred to.

Deputy Bernard J. Durkan

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply. A number of those Departments, such as that dealing with housing, are key to the future economic and social well-being of the country. In the past few days I received a quote from a system builder to the effect that he could build houses for €125,000 per unit. They would be perfectly passable and good houses and they could deal with the emergency that has arisen. Similar emergencies may arise in health or education, and it is in respect of those issues that I am asking the Minister if he is conscious of and generating an urgency and awareness within those Departments through the Ministers of what might have to be done in the not too distant future.

Deputy Paschal Donohoe

Yes. In trying to respond to the kind of issues referred to by the Deputy, we have already decided and made it clear to the relevant Minister, Deputy Coveney, that from the additional resources that we believe will be available to the country for the coming years, we will allocate a large portion to the Department dealing with housing. From the €5.3 billion that should be available in the coming years for additional capital funding, we have already allocated €2.2 billion to housing.

We have done that in recognition of the housing needs to which the Deputy referred. An issue I am very much aware of is the need to ensure developers and local authorities can make use of land they own or planning permissions they already have. A constraint we are seeing of late relates to a failure to ensure roads are built, infrastructure is developed and utilities are put in place, all of which is happening because local authorities do not have sufficient funding. From 1 January, we will have in place a local housing infrastructure fund of €200 million to address that problem. We have already seen a huge amount of interest in that fund.