Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 26 October 2023
152. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform the most common reasons for a slowdown in the delivery of the national development plan, the actions now being taken to address this as a matter of urgency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42067/23]
View answerThe Government has committed €165 billion in capital investment through the National Development Plan (NDP) published in 2021. As a percentage of national income, annual capital investment is now among the largest in the EU. In 2023, over €12 billion will fund vital infrastructure in areas such as housing, transport, education, enterprise, sport and climate action and provide good outcomes for our people. Achieving value for money and reducing cost and schedule overruns through robust oversight and governance arrangements is a vital part of delivering the NDP.
Delivery of the NDP has been impacted over the past three years as a result of pandemic related pauses in the construction sector, the inflationary impacts from both Covid public-health measures and the war in Ukraine, with knock-on impacts on the supply chain for construction materials. During 2022 (January and May), the Government introduced a number of measures to alleviate inflation pressures on the construction sector by introducing the Inflation Cooperation Framework for Public Works Contracts.
In March this year I announced six priority actions to address bottlenecks to NDP Delivery:
• Action 1: The Public Spending Code will be replaced by a set of Infrastructure Guidelines.
• Action 2: The Capital Works Management Framework (CWMF) will continue to work on rebalancing risk in the Public Works Contract while maintaining expenditure control.
• Action 3: The Project Ireland 2040 Delivery Board has been reconstituted and I now chair the Board, comprising the existing independent members and key Secretaries General.
• Action 4: Review of capacity in major departments and agencies to deliver on NDP priorities with particular focus on significant capital projects to ensure appropriate resourcing to assist delivery.
• Action 5: An independent mid-term evaluation of investment priorities and capacity of the NDP, focusing on the capacity to deliver current government priorities, to utilise sectoral capital allocations and to estimate the impact of the NDP on key economic indicators.
• Action 6: Reporting to the government on NDP delivery throughout 2023 and 2024 will take place on a quarterly basis.
Significant progress has been made on the implementation of these actions this year. In addition €2.25 billion from the windfall tax receipts will be allocated to capital expenditure over the period 2024-26 and will facilitate the progression of important projects in key sectors such as Education and Health and enable more rapid development of key Programme for Government commitments, particularly the delivery of actions to fulfil our climate action plan commitments. Recognising the capacity constraints in the economy, it is intended that the additional funding will be targeted at projects that are ready for development. This would include the consideration of which sectors have been able to utilise existing NDP allocations in recent years and who have a good track record of delivery.
