Jack Chambers

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. As he knows, the National Immunisation Office in the Department of Health takes a very much evidence-based approach to vaccination programmes. There has been some work on RSV relating to certain groups and it is free for babies, according to the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. Any expansion of that should be examined by the National Immunisati…

The safety and well-being of all residents in IPAS centres is of the highest priority for the Government and for the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan. All issues relating to fire safety are taken extremely seriously. When any inspection identifies issues, including those relating to fire safety, a formal process is immediately triggered to bring about a resolution. A written report is provided to the …

I thank the Deputy. What is really important in aviation in particular is that safety comes first. I have not seen the particular report referenced but I will ask the Minister for Transport to respond to the Deputy's particular questions and the concerns raised by workers. Safety would come first in any framing, or agreement, of a contract or indeed the operational work around that contract. The M…

What happened to Ashling Murphy in Offaly was shocking. I know how difficult this continues to be for her family and indeed for the wider community. I want to speak more generally to say that the removal of criminals and those who are a danger to public safety is always a priority for the Minister for justice. In the free movement regulations of 2015, there is a mechanism through which that can oc…

My Department is currently finalising the completion of a report and action plan on accelerating infrastructure delivery in our economy. It will be brought to Government in the coming weeks. It will set out a series of high-impact reforms targeted at the most significant barriers to the timely delivery of critical infrastructure. These reforms will have a clear focus on reducing timelines and sign…

Departments are in the process of developing sectoral investment plans to allocate their capital resources and these will be published in the coming weeks.

There are extensive actions across every barrier and the plan is to have the majority of the practical actions being delivered in 2026. Every action we take is about shortening and truncating timelines for the development lifecycle of critical infrastructure, which is simply taking too long. That means we need to increase our risk appetite. We have too much process and too many decision-makers and…

That is why we have corrected that around having over 5% GNI* allocated for critical infrastructure, which is one of the highest levels of infrastructure investment across EU counterparts. It did not take any article in any newspaper for me to prioritise infrastructure delivery. Since the brief was allocated to my Department, we have stood up a task force, developed an evidence base and published …

I thank Deputy O'Callaghan. Securing value for money is an ongoing priority for the Government. It is at the heart of all decision-making at every stage of policy or programme lifecycles. It is about securing the efficient and effective use of public resources and improving living standards and infrastructure for the people of our country. Policy analysis is a core component of public expenditure …

I reject that analysis. Much work across government and in the public service is delivering a significant number of projects on time and on budget. Flippant remarks about particular projects undermine the core work of many people who work across our system. It is important to balance the Deputy's remarks in that context. Since 2024, approximately 59 publications have been authored. In 2025, we hav…

I started listing a number of them that have been published. As I said, there have been 59 papers published since 2024. I am happy to send to the Deputy a list of the ones we have published. Indeed, what has informed most of the work in the Department was the medium term expenditure framework, which did an expenditure analysis of the overall expenditure trends across Government. I am not sure if …

It has been the most extensive detailed piece of work across many of the economists in the Department, looking at the expenditure trends for the past five years and at how we make the policy choices and trade-offs over the next five years, acknowledging some of what was referenced in the Department of Finance report yesterday in terms of changing demographics, the impact of climate change and-----

There are ongoing publications. Indeed, I regularly publish their respective reports. I am not sure who is giving the Deputy that analysis on reports not being published because-----

-----many of the IGEES reports are published. I am not sure if the Deputy read the medium term expenditure framework. It is a comprehensive, cross-cutting cross-government report as a five-year backward-looking analysis on expenditure trends to inform expenditure for the next five years. It informs a lot of the work that we undertook as part of budget 2026 and will inform the medium-term structur…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 and 33 together. As Minister, I am responsible for setting overall capital allocations across Departments and for monitoring the relative expenditure and delivery at departmental level. In the national development plan review 2021, the Government originally committed €165 billion in capital investment for the period from 2021 to 2030, and subsequently agreed to …

I thank the Deputy. We both share the same constituency with a lot of young families. I share her objective of ensuring we develop more places and more opportunities to have childcare facilities and affordable childcare across our community and indeed in communities across the country. The Minister, Deputy Foley, is working with her allocation of €795 million over the next five years. Obviously, t…

The Deputy and I are in agreement in lots of areas. DART+ West is a project that is not caught in the paralysis, the delays and bureaucracy. It is one that we can try to commence quickly. Where we have opportunities on public transport, we should be using the increased capital allocation from a transport perspective to get projects moving. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is working on the sectoral i…

I know. Quickly.

In line with the commitments made in the programme for Government, a new infrastructure division has been established within my Department. Led by a deputy secretary general, this division is focused on how the delivery of critical infrastructure across the State can be accelerated. It comprises a blend of experienced civil servants and sectoral experts with direct experience in infrastructure del…

I know the critical need to deliver more beds in the mid-west region. Following the HIQA report, it is important that we do that in the context of the new allocation to the Department of Health and as part of the national development plan. I agree with much of what the Deputy has said. The guidelines, as they are, are probably too conservative and there is a need for reform. That is why we want t…

I agree the proposals need to be practical, quick and make an impact on the wider delivery of economic and social infrastructure. The guidelines the Deputy referred to, which have multiple gateways, need to be reformed and changed. There is too much circular analysis, which in many instances does not add value and adds time. That is why there is going to be change. Some of the reforms we will be i…

Following the change of name of my Department upon the formation of the Government, a procurement process was undertaken to replace the Department’s signage at the Government Buildings complex. After the new signage had been installed, it was noted that one word had been misspelt. The external supplier of the signage confirmed that it made this error when producing it and has replaced the signage …

I have set out the position. Very few Ministers are directly sending items for procurement or are directly involved in the procurement process. When this emerged, the facts were established. The signage is being replaced at no additional cost. Ensuring value for money and financial management are critical in all elements of public expenditure management. At a wider level, we are reviewing public …

The relevant Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, is doing extensive work on procurement reform. She has led extensive engagement across the country with SMEs and businesses on how we can have better engagement in the tendering process to have more competition and participation by SMEs. There are reforms happening at EU level as part of that too. All elements of streamlining are our focus so as to d…

The review of the national development plan published in July represents the largest capital investment and injection in our economy in the history of the State. As part of the NDP review, the Government agreed substantive annual sectoral allocations for 2026 to 2030 and overall Government capital ceilings to 2035. The review sets out total public capital investment of €275.4 billion to 2035. This…