I acknowledge the significant difficulty for many of the Deputy's constituents when there is such disruption over a weekend, exacerbated by other events. There should be better co-ordination. There is capital investment in particular events. In terms of public transport no-shows and issues with levels of services, the National Transport Authority, NTA, has brought in a regime of fines for bus operators that do not op…
TDs / Jack Chambers
Jack Chambers
Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
0
questions asked
Members of the Government answer questions rather than ask them
152,394
words spoken in the chamber
146,472 as a minister, 5,922 as a TD
358
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
From the Dáil chamber only: committee meetings are not in this archive.
Members of the Government answer parliamentary questions rather than ask them, so this page lists none of theirs.
Month by month
Low months are usually recesses, when the Dáil does not sit. The archive runs to 22 October 2026.
Contributions to debates 720 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Contributions |
|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 57 |
| March 2025 | 2 |
| April 2025 | 36 |
| May 2025 | 52 |
| June 2025 | 2 |
| July 2025 | 90 |
| August 2025 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 0 |
| October 2025 | 11 |
| November 2025 | 109 |
| December 2025 | 69 |
| January 2026 | 1 |
| February 2026 | 44 |
| March 2026 | 0 |
| April 2026 | 37 |
| May 2026 | 44 |
| June 2026 | 1 |
| July 2026 | 60 |
| August 2026 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 80 |
| October 2026 | 25 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 658 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Dublin West 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fianna Fáil 29 November 2024 to now
- office Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform 23 January 2025 to 4 June 2025
- office Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation 5 June 2025 to now
I acknowledge the Deputy's concern in terms of the announcement by Merck. On, Wednesday, 22 October, IDA Ireland was notified of Merck's decision to wind down operations by the end of 2028. Staff were made aware on the same day. It is important to say this decision does not affect the life science employees. Our foremost concern is for any of the potentially impacted employees during this time. To be absolutely clear…
I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I know the Taoiseach had a meeting with some of the survivors in the past number of days. A process was put in place around the appointment of a mediator, which was wanted by all sides. The update I received on this yesterday was that a specific issue had arisen for the mediator who was due to be appointed but a recommended, very experienced alternate had agreed to…
I thank the Deputy. I discussed it there with the Minister, Deputy Heydon, as well. I acknowledge the significant pressure it puts on families, particularly in the commuter belt in south Kildare and elsewhere, who are reliant on coming to Dublin early in the morning. I will ask TII and the Minister for Transport to better resource the response, if that is an issue, so that when a particular accident arises, it can be…
I thank the Deputy. He is correct that some of the delivery of projects has been too slow. That is why projects like Carrignavar and others need to be accelerated over the coming years. We have prioritised putting €12 billion into water and wastewater infrastructure over the next five years. The Minister, Deputy Browne, is finalising the capital investment plan and the sectoral plan for water and wastewater infrastru…
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 Immunisation Office, where app…
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 contractor within 14…
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 Minister for Transpor…
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 occur. There is a part…
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 significantly improving …
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 there is risk avers…
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 the report in July o…
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 management and value…
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 have had the Intergener…
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 the Deputy has read …
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 structural and fiscal plan w…
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 additional funding o…
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, that includes childre…
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 investment plan for t…
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 delivery, many of whom …
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 to go higher, bigger …