Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach meet for pre-legislative scrutiny of Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill

The meeting at 1.30pm in Committee Room 3 of Leinster House will hear from officials from the Department of Finance and representatives of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).

Committee Cathaoirleach Deputy John McGuinness said: “This Bill proposes to establish two funds, the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure Climate and Nature Fund, alongside the existing Ireland Strategic Investment Fund. It is proposed that the three funds will provide for saving and investing resources to deal with long-term pressures on expenditure, supporting counter cyclical capital spending and help address specific climate and nature problems, and maintaining investment in the domestic economy.

“The general scheme was agreed by the Government in October and then referred to the Committee for pre-legislative scrutiny. Members welcome this engagement with the Department officials and representatives of the NTMA and look forward to detailed examination of the Heads of the Bill and related matters.”

The Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach has 14 Members, nine from the Dáil and five from the Seanad.

This will be followed at 3:45pm by a meeting of the Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach, made up of the Members of the Dáil only, to discuss the 2023 Supplementary Estimates for Public Services:

• Vote 13 (Office of Public Works) – Patrick O'Donovan TD, Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and at the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media;
• Vote 11 (Public Expenditure and Reform), Vote 12 (Superannuation and Retired Allowances), Vote 14 (State Laboratory), Vote 17 (Public Appointments Service), Vote 18 (National Shared Services Office), Vote 43 (Office of the Government Chief Information Officer) – Paschal Donohoe TD, Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform.

Both meetings in Committee Room 3 can be viewed live on Oireachtas TV.

Committee proceedings can also be viewed on the Houses of the Oireachtas Smartphone App, available for Apple and Android devices.