Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 11 December 2025
45. Deputy Shay Brennan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation the progress to date under National Strategic Outcome (NSO) 10 of the National Development Plan 2021-2030; the additional funding allocated under this NSO following the review of the NDP; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [70595/25]
View answerAs Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitisation I am responsible for setting the overall capital allocations across Departments and for monitoring monthly expenditure at Departmental level.
In the 2021 NDP review, the Government originally committed €165 billion in capital investment for the period 2021-30, and subsequently agreed to additional funding of €2.25 billion in March 2024 for 2024-2026.
The revised National Development Plan, published in July, set out €275.4 billion in public capital investment to 2035 – the largest and most significant capital injection in our economy in the history of the State. Following the agreement of the revised NDP in July 2025, gross capital expenditure ceilings for all sectors have now been set out to 2030.
National Strategic Outcome (NSO) 10 refers to access to quality childcare, education and health services and aims to ensure that the co-ordination and provision of childcare places, primary and post-primary schools places and health infrastructure is consistent with the objectives of the national planning framework.
Since 2020, significant delivery of health infrastructure has been achieved, including:
• 1,445 Acute Beds have been delivered between December 2020 to early October 2025
• 82 Critical Care Beds have been completed, bringing capacity to 340 beds across the country
• 51 Primary Care Centres (PCC) have been delivered as of Q3 2025, through a combination of HSE Own-Build and Operational Lease, and
• 26 CNU projects have been constructed since 2020 under the HIQA compliance programme.
The Health Sectoral Plan published in November 2025 sets out priority capital projects and programmes within its NDP allocation of €9.25 billion for 2026 to 2030 across areas including acute care, women and children's health care, acute bed capacity, urgent and emergency care, elective services, cancer services, primary care and community care among other areas.
With regard to education, €7.55 billion was allocated to the Department of Education and Youth for 2026 to 2030 as part of the NDP Review 2025 to support capital investment in new school buildings projects as well as maintenance and upgrades of existing schools.
The 2026 provision of €1.6 billion is supporting the progression of over 300 school building projects and extending capacity for special education needs through repurposing and developing modular capacity.
A further €795 million was allocated to the Department of Children, Disability and Equality (DCDE) as part of the NDP Review. The DCDE Capital Sectoral Plan was published in November 2025 and set out €188 million of investment in early learning and childcare to increase capacity and supply of early learning and childcare places, including through state-led infrastructure, as well as investment in existing service infrastructure.
