Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 26 October 2023
17. Deputy Matt Shanahan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to outline where the balanced regional spend to the south east has been accomplished since the formation of the Thirty-third Dáil (details supplied). [46935/23]
View answerAs Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform I am responsible for setting the overall capital allocations across Departments and for monitoring monthly expenditure at Departmental level. The responsibility for the management and delivery of individual investment projects, within the allocations agreed under the National Development Plan (NDP), rests with the individual sponsoring Department in each case.
Balanced regional development is a key priority of this Government and this priority is at the heart of Project Ireland 2040. This strategic plan includes the National Planning Framework (NPF), which sets the overarching spatial strategy for the next twenty years, along with the revised National Development Plan 2021-30 (NDP) which was published in October 2021. The revised NDP provides a detailed and positive vision for Ireland over the next 10 years, and sees total public investment of €165 billion over the period 2021-2030. The plan aims to ensure that 75% of growth takes place outside Dublin.
In 2023, over €12 billion has been made available from the Exchequer for investment in public capital projects. This is supporting the provision of more schools, homes, hospitals and other pieces of vital infrastructure, across all regions including the South-East.
To give you just a few specific examples of important infrastructure projects delivered under the NDP in the South East:
• enhanced educational facilities including two projects in excess of €1m at St. Stephen's National School, and De Le Salle Post-Primary School, Waterford
• better transport links including the N25 New Ross Bypass and the M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy motorway
• improved health facilities including a second Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory at University Hospital Waterford and a new Primary Care facility at Ferrybank.
The Government is committed to increasing public awareness of the capital investment in Project Ireland 2040 in all regions. A Project Ireland 2040 report on each regional assembly area, including the Southern region, is published each year. The 2022 annual reports were published in October 2023 and are available on gov.ie/2040. In addition, my Department publishes a major capital projects tracker and an interactive map, which sets out details of the key projects and programmes being implemented under the NDP, including those in the Southern region.
