Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 February 2025
70. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to provide details on the full number of staff who will be assigned to the proposed dedicated infrastructure division in his Department; if he will provide details on the range of skill sets that will be available within the division; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5127/25]
View answer77. Deputy Ryan O'Meara asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform when the new infrastructure unit in his Department will be established; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4922/25]
View answerThis question is on the commitment made in the programme for Government to create a dedicated infrastructure division in the Department. Will the Minister put on the record the range of skill sets that will be available, the number of staff to be employed and the overall complexion of that particular division, which will be critical to the development of crucial infrastructure in our country?
I propose to take Questions Nos. 70 and 77 together.
The programme for Government sets out the clear ambition to prioritise the delivery of transformative, critical and growth-enhancing infrastructure over the next five years by delivering projects as early as possible and within budget. Extra emphasis has been given to my Department through the placing of a real focus on infrastructure and the creation of a dedicated infrastructure division led by a deputy Secretary General. The division will provide greater oversight and support across government in regard to infrastructure delivery to ensure delivery agencies can better deliver the infrastructure needed by our economy and the national development plan.
My Department is presently giving full consideration to the skills and resources required to support it to deliver on the specific mandate of the new division. Any additional skills and resources will complement the Department's existing staff in the national investment office, which consists of staff with economic and financial expertise, staff in the construction procurement policy unit, who have expertise in procurement, architecture, engineering and surveying, and staff in the commercial skills academy, who have expertise in engineering and professional development. The requirement for additional analytical, technical, procurement and project management expertise within the division will be scoped out with a view to using this expertise to support all of the national development plan delivery bodies with major infrastructure projects.
It is important to note that many of the Department's wider Vote sections also support national development plan delivery through their day-to-day oversight of spending and delivery by sectoral Departments, including the sanctioning of capital spending and providing advice to Government and sectoral departmental policies. Further functions within the Department also deal with issues that impact on this delivery. These include public sector pay policy in the sanctioning of technical posts and salaries required for specific expertise and the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, which has oversight of larger digital transformation projects. These officials have other responsibilities in respect of their sectors or wider current spending policies and will therefore support the infrastructure division in its work.
As proposed within the programme for Government, the division and its staff will work with Departments and agencies to expedite infrastructure delivery by identifying barriers and progressing reforms to boost delivery and by using the levers at the Department's disposal, including its role in resource allocation, the proposed Cabinet committee on infrastructure and the use of cross-governmental oversight structures.
I thank the Minister very much. The creation of this division seems to be a halfway house between Fine Gael's manifesto commitment to a Department of infrastructure and Fianna Fáil's own ambitions in this area, as reflected in its general election manifesto. The division will be headed by a deputy Secretary General. That is also the case in some other Departments. I believe the Department of Justice has a deputy Secretary General. The way the Minister has described this suggests that expertise will be pulled into this division from other Departments. Will this then mean a diminution of expertise in, for example, the Department of Transport? Many of us in the Oireachtas are concerned about delays to major transport projects around the country. How might that work? The Minister will understand, will accept and has experienced in his role the principle that finances follow functions. When a Department is split up and functions move, the resources move with them. Is that the case?
We are scoping out the overall staffing needs of the division but, to be clear, the overall intention and policy focus in the establishment of this division is not to shallow out or undermine the expertise or delivery systems we have within existing Departments. This is very much to complement and enhance delivery systems, to focus on barriers to delivery and to progress the overall reforms that will be required to drive delivery across different Departments and agencies. That is the overall intention here. This is not about trying to shallow out or undermine good delivery systems. It is about leveraging overall expertise to drive better delivery of infrastructure in our economy. That is why we will use additional analytic and specialist expertise by working with colleagues in the Department of Finance, who will obviously have a view on overall infrastructure delivery in our economy. We will also work with the NDFA and NewERA to enhance delivery. That is why the role of the NTMA and its inputs on overall infrastructure delivery were reflected in the general election campaign. We are trying to establish a greater centralised focus on, and greater oversight of, delivery to underpin the outputs and outcomes. The Deputy is correct; there are a number of examples of projects. In many instances and in certain areas, these are being driven on and are being delivered on budget and on time. In other instances, there are ongoing delays and members of the public are frustrated that they are not seeing the projects set out in the national development plan. We want to accelerate and boost delivery within the infrastructure division. We have overall responsibility for capital spending in the economy. That is why we are scoping out specific staffing needs but it is very much to complement the work of existing Departments, to support them in driving better delivery and identifying barriers and to get feedback from them on those barriers to that we can try to eliminate them and achieve the infrastructure delivery we need.
I will put the Minister behind the 8-ball, if I may. I have no doubt from speaking to his Government colleagues that Government has one, two or maybe even three principal objectives in respect of the expeditious delivery of critical infrastructure in the early part of the term of this Government. What are the most important infrastructure development projects that could be supported by this new division? The Minister must have something in mind. I have no doubt that he does. I have a slight concern.
It was a concern that probably surfaced in the context of the election campaign in November but also subsequent to that in the programme for Government negotiations. I am not sure if there were any issues at all between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. I refer to the idea of whether a department of infrastructure should be set up. The settled view seems to be that setting up a Department is complicated and it takes time, while the priority is delivery. What does the Minister want to deliver? What projects does he think this initiative will help him to deliver quicker?
First, we will review the national development plan to identify a new ambition and focus on overall delivery. What we have set out previously, for example, in regard to the state aid case concerning Apple, is that the strategic priorities of our economy are housing, water, energy and transport infrastructure. The other pillar is health digitalisation. That has been a missed opportunity for too long. It is hugely important in the context of our healthcare infrastructure. The fragmentation and limitation of the digitalisation of our health system have undermined overall productivity and value for money but also the support for patient care and outcomes. We can support healthcare workers and professionals in their day-to-day jobs given the opportunities that presents.
They are some of the strategic priorities that we have set out. That will be reflected in the context of the review of the NDP. Complementing the overall capital allocation we aim to try to drive better delivery across the board. As we are establishing a new division, that is what we are currently scoping out from a skills perspective. Separate to that is how we identify some of the areas where there were delays in advancing projects in the past in order to try and accelerate their delivery. We have pretty ambitious commitments to ensure the NDP review is conducted and completed by the summer of this year. Then it is about trying to underpin that in the context of a multi-annual plan. We are driving that on.
We have a lot of work ongoing in the context of the Apple escrow and also other funds. We are working with the Department of Finance on that specific strategic infrastructure. If we take the overall housing supply in our economy, we have set new housing targets. The key to unlocking that is energy, water and transport infrastructure in particular. They are key to driving overall housing delivery. Accelerating that will be central to our new national development plan.
