As part of the budgetary process each year, my Department sets overall expenditure ceilings for each ministerial Vote group. These are laid out in the budget day expenditure report, with further detail provided in the Revised Estimates published in December. Following the allocation of each expenditure ceiling, each Minister designs the programmes and subhead level across Departments and the agencies under their remit, accounting for the demands for services in different areas and regions and having regard to demographics, population growth and other factors. Within this process, current and capital expenditure are allocated on a departmental basis. More broadly, the Government wants to achieve balanced regional development as part of Project Ireland 2040, the national planning framework and the spatial strategy, as part of the national development plan. Since Project Ireland 2040 was launched in 2018, the Government has overseen the delivery of many impactful national development plan projects across the country, including in Dublin West, such as the recently completed teaching building in Technological University Dublin Blanchardstown and the provision of hundreds of social and affordable housing units in Church Fields, Mulhuddart, some of which have been completed while others are being built. There have been multiple school projects across the Dublin West constituency. Many projects have been completed and are planned for Connolly Hospital. Regarding transport commitments, the Deputy is aware of the wider Bus Connects plan, which is being progressed by the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and Dart West has advanced through the planning process. Arising from the national development plan published in July last year, €19.1 million in Exchequer capital investment will be provided in 2026. This increases capital investment across the country that will generate substantial employment demand in the construction sector. Departments have also published sectoral investment plans setting out the capital projects to prioritise for 2026-30. These plans provide visibility of the delivery pipeline, giving construction firms the certainty they need to invest as part of the multi-year approach designed to support industry planning and ensure that regional capacity can grow in line with demand. I will come back in on some of the other items.
Sentiment score: 0.13
I acknowledge the particular issue that exists. I meet with many constituents from both Tyrrelstown and Hollystown, where the bus service does need to be much improved. There has been a significant increase in housing supply in Tyrrelstown and Hollystown, but there is a need to improve the service for the sake of many of the existing residents. Part of the BusConnects plan is to deliver that, which is obviously more on the infrastructure side, but there is also a need improve the frequency of buses and the respective bus routes that service Tyrrelstown and Hollystown. This is something I have engaged on frequently with the National Transport Authority in relation to the additional service roll-out in the period ahead. I have also interacted with BusConnects to ensure that those involved future-proof further developments in the context of areas, including Tyrrelstown and Hollystown, where there has been or will be significant population growth. People in both places need access better public transport, as the Deputy referenced. That is a matter on which I continue to engage with those involved.
Sentiment score: 0.50
There have been issues for people in Hollystown. Some even have quite a long walk to get to the existing bus stop. There is a need to improve the existing service but also to reflect the feedback people have given in respect of the various bus routes. Like the Deputy, I will engage with the National Transport Authority on some of the amendments that need to be made to the bus routes and in the context of reflecting the feedback we are getting from constituents. The authority needs to future-proof the transport system in the area in light of ongoing population growth. There is a need to improve in that context, and I will pursue that.
Sentiment score: 0.32
I thank Deputy Neville. In December 2025, the Government published the Accelerating Infrastructure Report and Action Plan. It is a comprehensive programme of actions designed to speed up the delivery of critical infrastructure across the State. This action plan responds to well-documented challenges of lengthy development timelines, fragmented processes and rising costs. These have all been identified as major barriers to achieving Ireland’s housing, energy and climate objectives. The plan sets out 30 targeted actions grouped under four areas, namely, legal reform, regulatory reform and simplification, delivery reform, and public acceptance. My Department has already led on a number of reforms to date, including, but not limited to, the drafting process of the general scheme of the critical infrastructure Bill to be progressed during March, which has been published in the Government’s published legislative agenda; the establishment of a regulatory simplification unit, whose work will include reviewing regulatory structures, governance, oversight and accountability and revising and simplifying different legislation and statutes; and preparing reforms to the infrastructure guidelines, which is being progressed this month. I have also launched a new service to accelerate major Government capital investment through the expertise of the National Development Finance Agency. We have had the first meeting of the new joint utilities and transport clearing house to have shared collaboration across sectors and greater delivery and co-operation. Under pillar 3, co-ordination and delivery reform, the aim is to introduce risk appetite statements to enable proportionate oversight and accelerate infrastructure delivery. This action is to provide a better strategic-level risk governance tool that sets a higher level of risk for Government Departments or agencies on what they are willing to tolerate, identifying boundaries on high-risk decisions and wider and clearer expectations for risk oversight. This action is intended to support the creation of a co-ordinated, legally empowered system that reduces delays, improves planning certainty, increases the risk appetite and deals with the wider issues of risk aversion, which have been well documented. Following Government approval, Departments will be asked to define and publish clear, proportionate risk appetite statements for critical infrastructure decisions that can support a higher risk appetite. This will progress better expected benefits of delivery, which would outweigh the potential costs in the context of greater assumed risk. Examples of taking on a higher level of risk could include-----
Sentiment score: 0.18
I will go into that detail shortly.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I agree with everything the Deputy said and I appreciate his inputs at the infrastructure committee as well. There are well-documented issues with the existing culture, which has been too risk averse, leading to delays and cost increases. It is too process driven. It is about putting a delivery culture and delivery focus first. That means increasing risk appetite, but also taking practical steps, for example, carrying out early site clearance works in advance of or in parallel with another part of the process or forward ordering of key components for critical infrastructure so we can start a project much quicker while waiting for something else to conclude. Putting a lot of steps in parallel involves greater risk appetite if something does not happen as expected. It will come down to increasing risk appetite in multiple areas and decision points in the infrastructure lifecycle. The risk appetite statement is about us backing the public service to do this, which could have an adverse effect in a minority of projects but ultimately will yield better delivery and cut through the risk aversion which is well documented.
Sentiment score: -0.11
It is about having a clear, greater and more proportionate risk appetite statement for many infrastructure decisions. Ultimately we are measured on delivery and it is a process-driven approach. We have circular analysis and delays that will not narrow the infrastructure gap, which is well documented. The risk appetite statement will set out the expected benefits for delivery for a Department or agency, and how the assumption of greater risk outweighs the potential cost. We know that some of the processes we are trying to cut through and cut out in many instances add a significant level of cost to our overall capital spend, which the infrastructure committee has discussed. We will define and publish these in quarter 2 of this year. This is a clear signal to the public service to get on with delivery and have a delivery focus first. It will allow for a broader rebalancing. In terms of the public accounts committee and others, the risk appetite statements will provide a context in the years to come when, hopefully, we will have a higher level of delivery for the infrastructure committee. This will have to be seen in the context of wider assessments when analysing spend.
Sentiment score: 0.13
I thank Deputy Connolly and I appreciate his support on this. My Department is responsible for the infrastructure guidelines, which replaced the public spending code for capital appraisal since the end of 2023. These set the value for money requirements and guidance for evaluating, planning and managing Exchequer-funded capital projects. Management and delivery of investment projects and public services within allocation and the national frameworks is a key responsibility of every Department, Accounting Officer and Minister. Action 23 in the accelerating infrastructure report, published in December 2025, commits my Department to streamline and speed up the project approvals process by amending the infrastructure guidelines. In line with this action, I brought a memorandum to Government this week on the following changes to the infrastructure guidelines. In relation to major projects, the threshold will increase from €200 million to €500 million for sectors with a well-established track record of delivery, particularly in the energy, transport and water sectors. The external assurance process will be replaced with a streamlined and time-bound internal review by the Department for all sectors to save significant time. Major projects at approval gate 2 will no longer need ministerial approval and may now be approved solely by the Accounting Officer of the Department that is funding the proposed project. Ministers will continue to be involved at approval gates 1 and 3, which are the critical decision points. Trying to remove duplicate and unnecessary steps to save time has been the central objective for us in government. These changes will remove unnecessary time delays for critical infrastructure projects while retaining the necessary governance and oversight arrangements to ensure value for money for the taxpayer. In particular, the removal of the external assurance process, which was taking on average 20 weeks, will ensure projects move more rapidly through the delivery lifecycle while ensuring projects over a particular threshold will see the major project advisory group involved. These and other recommendations in the action plan, including on the introduction of administrative guidance on timelines for preliminary business case assessment and maintaining a maximum length, will be included in the overall public financial management and control framework as part of the wider review of public financial procedures. Saving time and improving delivery is our wider focus.
Sentiment score: 0.39
On Deputy Connolly's first point, this is removing an unnecessary middle step which was adding time. The critical points are approval of the preliminary business case, which sets the political direction for a project to be advanced with prospective capital spend, and final approval for a contract award, which involves the respective Minister. Again, it removes a middle step which did not provide value and just added time. This is what is being changed. In terms of transport and water projects, we will have a regulatory simplification unit to look at the wider regulatory landscape where we have duplication of approvals, whether through the CRU or other respective bodies. The changes we are making relate to the thresholds and will significantly help the better delivery of water infrastructure in the State by moving the threshold from €200 million to €500 million. There are certain dual approvals required and, in some instances in transport, sometimes more than two approvals required and multiple agencies regulatory bodies are involved. This will be assessed by the regulatory simplification unit to simplify the approval process and avoid duplication, as Deputy Connolly has referenced, to speed up delivery.
Sentiment score: 0.28
We have taken every step in the infrastructure life cycle and tried to cut time. The Deputy referenced transport and water. We have the joint utilities and transport clearing house. That reflects those key sectors which build the foundations of any community in terms of water, energy and transport infrastructure. Improving co-ordination in how that wider infrastructure is delivered is part of that objective. All the utilities are involved in that, including Eirgrid and the ESB in the context of infrastructure. We will advance the critical infrastructure Bill, which will help set the prioritisation and political direction for the Government and the Oireachtas around particular projects. That could be in advance of projects going into the planning process. With some of the projects that are in the planning process, the wider risk when they leave it is that licensing and consents are sometimes required. We are reforming that area so we can deliver some of them in parallel. The risk of judicial review also hangs over a lot of projects. The reforms we will advance this year in the context of judicial reviews are to try to deal with that issue. One of the major issues when a project receives permission is whether it can actually start it if there is a threat of judicial review. My colleagues and I are also advancing that reform.
Sentiment score: -0.03
I propose to take Questions Nos. 13, 28, 61, 77 and 83 together. My Department will be managing the monitoring and reporting on delivery of the actions in the Accelerating Infrastructure Report and Action Plan, which will be led within the infrastructure division. The action plan details 30 headline actions for delivery by quarter and sets target outputs and outcomes to be achieved. All lead Departments have continued to engage over recent weeks and days to provide an update on what is meant to be delivered for quarter 4, 2025 and quarter 1, 2026 and the important structural changes within their sectors to aid the delivery of the 30 actions. All actions required for delivery in 2025 have been completed. Some of the key deliverables include the publication of the NDP review 2025 and the subsequent publication of all sectoral plans. We have also had a wider step-change in investment in the water, transport energy and sectors. The sectoral plans detail over 200 specific projects that are being prioritised, with a particular focus on projects going to tender and construction in 2026 and 2027. This is with the specific aim of providing construction sector certainty on the pipeline. Government consultation on the scale of fees for environmental judicial reviews is being led by the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment which will, in effect, limit the cost that the State pays in environmental judicial reviews. The first meeting has been held of the new joint utilities and transport clearing house, which will ensure a shared understanding and better co-ordination between the utilities and transport sectors on infrastructure delivery. We have the heads of Bill being brought to put the judicial review process on a statutory footing by my colleague, the Minister for justice, Deputy O'Callaghan, in January. At this point, good progress is noted for actions required for delivery in quarter 1. Some of the progress areas include the following. The public consultation process on proposed scale of fees closed on 15 January 2026. Work on the critical infrastructure Bill is progressing in terms of drafting and input by the Attorney General, which is happening on a weekly basis. The publication of a general scheme in March has been confirmed in the Government's published priority legislative agenda. A high-level group on EU policy and the European co-ordinators network has been used to monitor legislation and regulations that may impact on infrastructure delivery. A meeting of this group took place on 21 January. As committed under action 23, reforms to the infrastructure guidelines were brought by me to the Government for approval this week. These key reforms relate to higher thresholds for major projects, the discontinuation of the external assurance process and the reduced approval requirements prior to issue to try to simplify the approval steps. The Government has also approved an enhanced role for the National Development Finance Agency to support infrastructure delivery and key Exchequer funded projects. A circular outlining how Departments may avail of this support will be published. There has been a meeting of the joint utilities and transport clearing house which is continuing in quarter 1, 2026. My Department is also engaging with bodies to map structures and identify the key specific administrative constraints to effective co-ordination and delivery. There is also work ongoing on revised structures within the construction sector group to advise on actions detailed in the December report on how we can improve further productivity and innovation within the construction sector. The Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, and I will be advancing procurement reforms to further enhance the attractiveness of public sector construction. My colleague, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Lawless, and his Department have published and are working on a critical skills needs assessment for the construction sector. This sets out the wider delivery of increased labour force with the capital investment programme that we have. At this point, we have delivered what we said we would in quarter 4 of last year and we are working on continuing to build momentum in quarter 1 and beyond this year.
Sentiment score: 0.26
We are essentially reducing the number of approval steps from three to two. The critical approval role of a Minister is after the preliminary business case. It is about putting discipline on how a preliminary business case is designed. In many instances, the administrative timelines taken for preliminary business cases are far too excessive. We are trying to put much greater discipline on that in terms of the wider project design and how a preliminary business case is built up. Even though political direction may have been given after the preliminary business case, there was an interim approval step which varied across Departments. Again, this will just simplify what is required in terms of the approval stop process. The Minister sets the direction post the preliminary business case which justifies why a project is needed following economic appraisal and assessment. The final decision of a Minister is post the tendering process where the tenders received align with the objectives set out in a preliminary business case. The critical involvement of a Minister is in those two areas. This median step only added time. If a Minister gives a direction at the preliminary business case, the outworking of that is to see the outcome of a tender and whether it meets the value requirements and the delivery that is set out in terms of the respective project. The biggest time saving from the changes I am making in the infrastructure guidelines is on the removal of the external assurance gate. The average time taken on that is about 20 weeks. Some take months longer than that, while others take a little less time. This was a duplicate step and the advice I received was that the value proposition involved is questionable in terms of the time that it took. That is being removed entirely, in part to try to simplify the wider delivery process.
Sentiment score: 0.16
We engage daily with the infrastructure team in the Department and the infrastructure division. According to the latest update, everything has been delivered in quarter 4 and we are on track with respect to the actions set for quarter 1 of this year. We are working in parallel to ensure steps or actions that are required in quarters 2 and 3 are being worked on as well if they have timelines in the middle of the year or later on in this year. Right now, there is progress across the respective areas. Over the last number of weeks, we have brought different memorandums to the Government in respect of various reforms to infrastructure delivery, such as the National Development Finance Agency, the reforms to the infrastructure guidelines and the conclusion of the sectoral investment plans, all of which aim to build momentum in terms of infrastructure delivery in the economy. We will work on the critical pieces, ensuring the continued work on the critical infrastructure Bill advances. The intention is to bring the scheme to Government in March, which is a really important piece on providing legislative backing for the acceleration of infrastructure in the State. That is on track as well.
Sentiment score: 0.35