Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 2 May 2024
134. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to outline the procedure and engagements with individual Departments to determine the share of capital increase that was allocated from the €2.25 billion over the next five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20038/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Government committed €165 billion towards capital investment through the National Development Plan (NDP) 2021-30 published in 2021. An additional €2.25 billion from the windfall tax receipts was made available to capital expenditure over the period 2024-26 in the Summer Economic Statement (SES) last year. This was to facilitate the progression of important projects and enable more rapid development of key Programme for Government commitments. 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).
The additional €2.25 billion builds on the existing funding already available under the NDP out to 2026 and it will mean more schools, housing, transport and healthcare projects can be progressed and delivered for our people. As a percentage of national income, annual capital investment is among the largest in the EU. Deliverability was of critical focus in the recent NDP allocation process with funding to be provided to those projects and programmes that will be successfully delivered or on track for delivery at end-2026.
The process commenced in December 2023, with a Memorandum to Government setting out the parameters of the review and the key criteria that should guide the sectoral prioritisation. The Departments were asked to respond with their key programmes and projects for consideration by late-January 2024. The first set of Ministerial-level engagements commenced in the last week of January and continued throughout February and March.
Throughout this process, there was significant Ministerial engagement as well as extensive negotiations at senior official level, with approximately 35 Ministerial bilateral meetings between myself and my Ministerial colleagues. On the agreement of allocations with each of the sectoral Ministers, the distribution of the additional €2.25 billion across Departments was agreed by Government on March 27.
Recognising the capacity constraints in the economy, the additional funding will be targeted at projects that are at the appropriate stage of development for advancement in 2025 and 2026. This would include the consideration of which sectors have been able to utilise existing NDP allocations in recent years and who have a good track record of delivery. This funding will facilitate the progression of important projects and enable more rapid development of key Programme for Government commitments, such as the delivery of actions to fulfil our climate action plan commitments, the provision of more housing and enhanced education facilities.
Significant uplifts have been provided to key sectors of NDP Delivery such as: Housing increasing from €3.87bn in 2024 to €4.34bn in 2026, Transport going from €2.66bn to €3.35bn from 2024 to 2026, Education going from €0.94bn to €1.3bn in the same period and Health increasing from €1.22bn in 2024 to €1.56bn in 2026.
Any increase in public investment to meet demand needs to be planned and sustainable over the lifetime of the ten-year plan in order to reduce risks of over-heating and poor value for money. This would also allow for delivery capacity to continue to be expanded. It is also critical that the implications of additional capital funding for the wider fiscal strategy are considered.
Overall capital allocations out to 2030 were published in the NDP 2021-30. The setting of sectoral allocations for each Department beyond 2026 is not under consideration at this time.
