Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 11 December 2025
64. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation the progress made to date under National Strategic Outcome (NSO) 1 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. [70488/25]
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, annual sectoral capital allocations have been agreed for departments for 2026 to 2030. Each Minister is responsible for deciding on the priority programmes and projects that will be delivered under their remit within the NDP and for setting out the timelines for delivery.
Following the agreement of annual sectoral capital allocations in the NDP Review, Departments have been publishing their sectoral plans of the capital projects and programmes to be prioritised within their NDP allocation. In setting out their plans, Departments are required to outline how their investment plans support the National Planning Framework (NPF) objectives they are responsible for. Compact Growth is national strategic outcome 1 in the NPF and is supported by strategic investment priorities, primarily Housing and Sustainable Urban Development.
Delivering Homes, Building Communities is the Government's Action Plan on housing supply and targeting homelessness and is aligned with the NPF. The plan notes that zoning sufficient land is a key enabler for the NPF's objective of ensuring sustainable compact growth for future development in Ireland. The NPF enables a plan-led and joined up approach to compact growth with investment in housing and transport links to unlock delivery at scale.
As part of the NDP Review, over €28 billion in exchequer funding was allocated to the Department of Housing for investment (excluding investment in Water), which is the largest Housing budget in the history of the state. In addition, the prioritisation of housing-enabling infrastructure sectors of water, energy and transport supports the objective of the Review and of the Housing Plan, to enable the delivery of 300,000 additional homes by 2030. The combination of record levels of funding and central coordination of the delivery of infrastructure in these critical sectors will support a joined up and plan-led approach to unlock compact growth and delivery at scale.
