Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 April 2024
67. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform whether the national development plan has sufficiently considered and is adequately resourced to deliver community and cultural amenities and services needed to accompany increased residential construction and housing demand; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17861/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs 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. The Government has committed €165 billion funding for capital investment, as set out in the NDP published in October 2021. This expenditure was considered and agreed in order to support those sectors that would be key in delivering the ten National Strategic Outcomes (NSOs) identified in the National Planning Framework (NPF). An additional capital expenditure of €250 million is being made available for 2024 from windfall exchequer receipts with a further €2 billion is being made available across 2025 (€750 million) and 2026 (€1.25 billion). This allocation is in addition to the committed €165 billion in capital investment through the National Development Plan (NDP), published in 2021.
The NDP contains expenditure commitments for NSO 3 which relates to Strengthening Rural Economies and Communities and NSO 7 which is the delivery of Enhanced Amenity and Heritage.
Under NSO 3, the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund (RRDF) seeks to support ambitious and strategic projects which have the potential to transform rural economies and communities and achieve the objectives of the Government’s rural development policy – Our Rural Future. To date 215 projects have been approved for funding of €414 million for projects worth €571 million.
Also under NSO 3, I welcome the positive progress being made under the National Broadband Plan. Under the National Broadband Plan (NBP), I note that, as of 5 April 2024, over 246,700 premises are now available to order or pre-order a high-speed broadband connection from National Broadband Ireland, with over 232,200 premises passed and available for immediate connection.
Under NSO 7, the NDP recognises cultural heritage infrastructure as an essential component for sustainable, attractive and liveable cities, towns, villages and rural areas. Investment priorities include: the enhancement of sports facilities throughout Ireland with the Sports Capital and Equipment Programme and Large Scale Sports Infrastructure Fund; the National Cultural Institutions Investment Programme. Specific projects range from the refurbishment of the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, to the development of world-class sporting facilities at the Sport Ireland Campus.
The Government is committed to detailing progress on the delivery of the NDP at regular intervals into the future, including the delivery of community and cultural amenities and service, to allow for full transparency of the implementation of Project Ireland 2040. This is achieved through regular updates of the Project Ireland 2040 capital investment tracker and MyProjectIreland interactive map viewer which list projects and programmes on a regional and county level. In addition, Annual and Regional Reports on the implementation of Project Ireland 2040 have been published for 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. The Project Ireland 2040 Annual and Regional Reports, capital investment tracker and myProjectIreland interactive map are all available on gov.ie/2040.
