-----and an €810 million capital allocation will fund key infrastructure projects, including the following: the recently established Taighde Éireann will be supported to drive excellence in research, attract international research talent and promote knowledge transfer; student accommodation projects at Maynooth University and University College Dublin; development and operation of 11 technological university faciliti…
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
The Government is committed to continuing to support our fishing communities and aquaculture sector. A total of €7.4 million in increased funding is bring provided to Bord Iascaigh Mhara programmes, to support and enable a sustainable Irish seafood sector.
Another area where Ireland thrives in the global arena is in culture and sport.
Culture, Communications and Sport
For a small country, Ireland offers an extraordinary wealth of talent and entertainment. Our artists, writers and athletes are now leading the way on the world stage, while our media keep us connected to each other and to global stories as they unfold. To build on the progress we have made, the Departme…
Ireland has a proud footballing history at both domestic and international level. However, despite the enthusiasm for the game here, our youth development structures have not kept pace with those in other countries. In addition, rule changes following Brexit mean many more young players are staying in our domestic system for longer. This presents us with a responsibility, but also an enormous opportunity, to nurture …
-----and funding to the Irish Rugby Football Union to strengthen high-performance pathways for women in rugby.
The success and achievements of our sporting heroes inspire us all and bring that collective ambition to be better. When our sports men and women succeed, our nation rises.
The same can be said of our artists. Throughout our history, our arts community and the world-class talent it boasts has ensured Ireland has always been a home of creativity.
In recognition of the essential role of the arts and artists in our society, the previous Government introduced a pilot basic income for the arts scheme and this Government is now committing to deliver a successor scheme to begin next year. In …
I thank Deputy Farrell. Some €106.4 billion in gross voted funding is being provided in 2025 to deliver on Government priorities and commitments. This significant level of investment reflects the priorities of budget 2025 and this Government’s commitment to deliver continued improvements in our infrastructure and enhance our existing public services to build a stronger future. End of June expenditure figures were pub…
The overall process on the national development plan is continuing. We have approximately €20 billion to allocate across critical areas in our economy. We know with the Department of housing that continued investment in public infrastructure for housing is central to this process. We have set out the priority areas of housing, energy, transport and water infrastructure in particular. That will give Ministers across m…
I share that objective. That is why giving that additional scope to Ministers across their respective policy areas to invest in critical infrastructure is essential as part of the national development plan. We are at a point of significant economic uncertainty and this Government is clearly setting out that we want to seriously increase our overall investment in critical infrastructure, which will provide the growth,…
I thank the Deputy for this question. On 3 July 2024 the European Commission presented a report on the transposition of the EU whistleblower directive 2019/1937. This report stated that a review of the directive, which is referred to in Article 27(3), would be finalised no later than 2026. This review or evaluation will assess the functioning of the directive and consider the need for additional measures, including a…
Everybody should be protected, particularly when they raise wrongdoing with public bodies. I think we all share that objective across the House. We have two areas of legislation between 2014 and 2022, some of which was the transposition of EU legislation and also policy direction in an Irish context. We have different points now in the context of the European review, which is happening, and the wider review that will…
Obviously, the European Commission presented a report in July of last year. The review will be launched this year and finalised next year. That wider evaluation will be essential in order to monitor the transposition of the directive into law in Ireland and in other member states. It will provide an opportunity for a wider input regarding the reforms that may be required as part of the broader EU transposition. From …
In April of this year, I announced Government had agreed a series of actions to accelerate the delivery of strategic infrastructure in Ireland. This work, led by my Department, will first identify and assess the barriers impeding the delivery of critical infrastructure across many sectors, including electricity, energy, transport and water. We will then publish an action plan which will target high-impact reform meas…
I can continue later.
Private wires are an essential part of developing the wider need on energy and digital infrastructure. What I was about to say was that some of the lengthy development cycles and regulatory complexity and fragmentation across regulatory bodies is extremely problematic. Too much uncertainty and delay is driven by legal, planning and consenting processes. There is also the issue of capacity concerns in the public and p…
If we look at the national planning framework and all the different existing policies, it is about complementing housing delivery with community infrastructure and social infrastructure. We have had significantly increased supports for the development of social infrastructure across the State. In the last Government, we had one of the biggest interventions around developing community and sports infrastructure, for ex…
In line with the commitment in the programme for Government, my Department has prioritised an early review of the national development plan, NDP, which will be published in July. The aim of the review is to improve our infrastructure, particularly water, energy and transport. Prioritisation of these sectors is necessary to deliver hundreds of thousands of additional homes and to boost our competitiveness.
The review…
Water and wastewater infrastructure is critical to deliver the homes that we need and to deal with the broader infrastructure deficit that exists relating to water infrastructure more generally. What we are doing as part of that is prioritising it.
The Exchequer funding of what is now Uisce Éireann significantly increased in recent years but we recognise that, to meet the level of ambition we have in housing supply …
I thank Deputy Farrell for raising the issue of offshore islands, Deputy Burke for raising the issue of wastewater treatment plants during the noughties and Deputy Crowe for raising the issue of underlying infrastructure. My first role as part of this is to ensure that commercial State bodies, like Uisce Éireann, are appropriately funded over the medium term. That is something we will address as part of the national …
The national development plan is the State's medium- to long-term plan for public capital investment. The current national development plan to 2030 provided for public capital investment of €165 billion over the period 2021 to 2030. Government is currently prioritising an early review of this plan, to be published this month, which will set out five-year departmental capital ceilings and additionality to 2030 and ove…
The Deputy is right. That was an excellent project delivered by Uisce Éireann. His original question connects back to the previous question that was asked. We understand the challenge Uisce Éireann has had each year in knowing its funding position the following year and the effect that has on contractors and their delivery pipelines. We are cognisant of that in the work we are doing as part of the national developmen…
I might just come in also. The Minister of State, Deputy Moran, just dealt with one part. Part of the work we are doing is to try to accelerate and improve the project life cycle. Be they full schemes or road projects, they are taking far too long.
IGEES is deployed across Government Departments, assessing and evaluating some of the policies that have been advanced by Government. It provides external assessment to i…
As the Deputy said, she is referring to delay in addressing taxes due on retirement and anomalies in deductions of various pension contributions. A review in relation to Ministers who may have been impacted regarding contributions and additional superannuation contributions, ASCs, has been completed. Those identified are being contacted and engagement is ongoing. I understand from the National Shared Services Office,…
Recruitment plans around chargeable excess tax and pension contributions are two separate issues. I agree that what happened is unacceptable. That is why we need a full external audit and that will happen.
If someone who has worked in the public service is liable for chargeable excess tax, they have 20 years on a normal basis to spread that liability once they retire. For example, if someone is retired for two years…
The external audit will be important in assessing the wider systems processes and compliance with public policy and with the statutory position the NSSO exists within. That work will commence and be completed as soon as practically possible. The tender process is ongoing with this audit for the NSSO.
As part of budgetary preparations, we are being clear we want to make permanent, sustained and sustainable changes in…