Jack Chambers

-----different projections which set out higher levels of completions and which were in the public domain. As has been previously said, the Government is disappointed with the final outturn of 2024.

That is why central to the review of the national development plan will be housing supply and infrastructure delivery.

We have a lot of constraints and barriers when it comes to housing supply which we need to unblock and which are undermining our ability to deliver the overall level of supply required to help people in the communities we all represent.

Similarly, investment in transport infrastructure unlocks housing development.

We know about the deficit in water infrastructure. Supporting the capital plan Irish Water has will be fundamental to unlocking the overall housing supply we require. In addition, there are the many of the other capital projects the Deputy referenced around refuges and other areas of priority. That is why we are reviewing the NDP. We are also looking at the delivery systems that underpin capital i…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. As he is aware, in the recently agreed programme for Government, we agreed to update the ethics in public office legislation. This is on foot of a wide-ranging review of the legislative framework for ethics in public life that my Department undertook during the lifetime of the previous Government. The report relating to that review was published…

In the context of the engagement with the Government Chief Whip and the Attorney General on the legislative programme, that is obviously legislation my Department has responsibility for. We have said we are going to engage in a review. Deputy Howlin was an excellent Member of this House. He did an excellent job in the role I am in. He brought forward the Bill in question, which has not made its wa…

I did not.

I thank the Deputy. Through this legislative reform, we want to have an effective updated standards framework. Such a framework is integral to the quality and efficacy of public governance in our State. It needs to be future-proofed in that context. The regulation of conflicts of interest is obviously central to building trust in public institutions and in the objectivity of public service decisio…

The single public service pension scheme is a statutory public service career-average defined benefit pension scheme, established on 1 January 2013 under the Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Act 2012. The single scheme was established to place publicly funded retirement benefits on a more sustainable footing in the context of longer life expectancies. All new entrants t…

I will finish by giving some further context. We brought forward the increased mandatory retirement age for those who choose to avail of it. The legislative change also allows uniformed members of the single scheme to continue accruing referrable amounts towards their occupational pensions for the additional years now worked. These members will continue accruing pension benefits on a fast-accrual …

I appreciate the feedback the Deputy has received. I regularly engage with all the uniformed members myself. I again acknowledge the work they do. The context of the 2013 scheme when it was introduced meant that it was the largest reform of public service occupational pension schemes in the history of the State. That was to try to put them on a sustainable footing by acknowledging the demographic …

Securing value for money is a central priority for this Government and is at the heart of all decision making at every stage of a policy, project or programme's life cycle, and it should be. Delivering value for money is about securing the efficient and effective use of public resources in the pursuit of better public services, living standards and infrastructure for the people of Ireland. Achievi…

I reject the Deputy's assertion that it is not a consideration; it categorically is. That is why we have put in place many of the governance frameworks around the major projects' advisory group. This has significant external evaluation and assurance processes and addresses the need for value for money in all elements of the infrastructure guidelines, which are published. That is set out across a …

That is very inflammatory language, to be frank.

You have to balance that against the public service that is trying to deliver on broader policy objectives, such as decarbonising public transport,-----

-----which is an important public good. You have to balance that against many public servants working in our transport system who want to ensure we advance a major capital project. There are issues with the systems around timelines, sequencing and the delays that happen in public projects, especially those relating to the planning system and the decision-making that happens in that regard. There i…

-----and trying to deliver on our broader social and public objectives when it comes to many areas of capital expenditure.

A comprehensive review of the FOI regime has been undertaken and is nearing completion. The review was undertaken in the context of a system that appeared to be operating well on its own terms. Since the introduction of the updated legislation in 2014, there has been a large expansion in FOI usage. The number of organisations covered by the legislation has increased significantly and the number of…

It was prudent that a review took place. It was very open-ended on public consultation and structured stakeholder engagement. There is also the international metric, which is important in that context. It has been established with very strong engagement in the recent period. We want to assess the feedback from the broader political system and, indeed, public interest parties that want to extract i…

I am happy to do that. If we look at the existing scheme, the fact that the requests have doubled is a good sign that people are engaging with the broader FOI system. One thing that also needs to be strengthened across public bodies is the work we are doing with the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, on data and digitalisation. A great deal of public information can be published properly and proac…

The more information we can publish and allow academics and the public interest to interact with it, the better it will be for public policymaking. This needs to sit in parallel with the FOI system itself in respect of how we get better proactive publication across the board.

The construction sector group was set up in 2018 by my Department. The group ensures regular and open dialogue between government and industry on how best to achieve and maintain a sustainable and innovative construction sector positioned to deliver on the national development plan and Project Ireland 2040. It is made up of representatives of key industry bodies, as well as senior representatives …

The latest meeting of the construction sector group received an update on some of what the Deputy mentioned. This included the proposed research on a pathway to having a 30% embodied carbon reduction in the construction sector, the development of a modern methods of construction data dashboard, which is nearing completion and the collaboration between Dublin City Council, DCC, and the Build Digita…

The construction sector group is doing an element of that in the context of construction skills. The Planning and Development Act was obviously discussed, and modern methods of construction as well as other priority areas, which I have referenced, around digital adoption and productivity in the construction sector. However, a separate very serious piece of work is ongoing in the Department on esta…