Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 December 2023
187. Deputy Michael Moynihan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform what action he has taken to enhance and expand public investment since 27 June 2020. [54393/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraSince this Government took office in June 2020, we have introduced significant changes to enhance the delivery of the State's national investment priorities.
Following a comprehensive review of the National Development Plan (NDP) over the course of 2020 and 2021, the Government committed €165 billion funding for capital investment, as set out in the NDP 2021-30 published in October 2021. From that total investment, between 2021 and 2023 almost €33 billion in core capital funding has been made available from the Exchequer for investment in public capital projects. As Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, I am responsible for setting the overall capital allocations across Departments. My Ministerial colleagues in Government are responsible for the delivery of the NDP projects that fall under their remit.
The significant level of expenditure committed under the NDP is pivotal in consolidating the progress already made, supporting balanced regional development and, most importantly, delivering the necessary infrastructure to support our future climate change obligations as well as our social and economic requirements.
In March this year, I informed Government of a package of significant actions aimed at enhancing project delivery of the NDP. The actions include significant changes to reduce the administrative burden for Departments and public bodies developing capital projects. One of these specific changes was the general threshold for major projects increasing from €100m to €200m. These thresholds will be reviewed every 3 years to ensure they are still appropriate.
In terms of reviewing priorities and the capacity to deliver the NDP, an independent evaluation of investment priorities and capacity of was commissioned by my Department earlier this year. This work has been conducted by the ESRI, and my Department has recently received the final draft. The evaluation focuses on the capacity to deliver current Government priorities, to utilise sectoral capital allocations and estimates the impact of components of the NDP on key economic indicators. It is expected that the report will be published shortly.
The Government will continue to detail the delivery of the NDP at regular intervals into the future to allow for full transparency on the implementation of Project Ireland 2040. This will be achieved through regular updates of the Project Ireland 2040 capital investment tracker and map as well as the publication of annual reports and regional reports highlighting Project Ireland 2040 achievements and giving a detailed overview of the public investments which have been made throughout the country.
The capital investment tracker provides a composite update on the progress of all major investments with an estimated cost of greater than €20 million. Accompanying the tracker, the myProjectIreland interactive map details projects across the country and provides details on specific projects by county. Search facilities also allow citizens to view projects in their regional area, by city, by county or by eircode.
In addition, Regional Reports on the implementation of Project Ireland 2040 in the three Regional Assembly areas have been published for 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 The reports set out the regional projects and programmes, which are being planned and delivered across the State, as part of the public investment detailed in Project Ireland 2040. While the reports do not provide an exhaustive list of all public capital expenditure, they serve to highlight the diverse range of investments being made by the State under Project Ireland 2040.
The Project Ireland 2040 Annual and Regional Reports, capital investment tracker and myProjectIreland interactive map are all available on gov.ie/2040.
