Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 May 2026
503. Deputy Grace Boland asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation if he has considered establishing a central Government delivery unit or implementation office with responsibility for monitoring major State projects, procurement performance and European Union directive transposition timelines across Departments and agencies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39465/26]
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.
Individual Ministers have responsibility for prioritisation, governance and delivery of the projects under their remit. Following the publication of the 2025 National Development Plan, Departments published sectoral investment plans setting out the capital projects to be prioritised from 2026 to 2030. These plans provide visibility of the delivery pipeline, giving construction firms the certainty they need to invest in hiring, training, and scaling their operations. My Department has strengthened its functions in monitoring the delivery of the projects identified by the relevant Ministers.
In particular, the Infrastructure Division within my Department was formed in April 2025 in line with commitments made in the Programme for Government, with the goal of accelerating the delivery of critical infrastructure in Ireland.
The Infrastructure Division’s role is to carry out work established in the Accelerating Infrastructure Action Plan, deliver on ongoing functions in Votes, construction procurement, delivery and monitoring of infrastructure projects, and drive infrastructure regulatory simplification and legislative reform.
The Division supports improved outcomes across the public capital programme by driving simplification, enhancing delivery capability, and ensuring that infrastructure investment is efficient, transparent and aligned with national priorities.
The work of the Infrastructure Division includes:
• Implementing the Accelerating Infrastructure Report and Action Plan to speed up delivery and remove systemic barriers
• Overseeing capital expenditure and providing evidence-based advice across key Vote Groups, including Housing, Local Government and Heritage; Transport; and Climate, Energy and the Environment
• Developing construction procurement policy, enhancing sector capability, and advancing digital tools and standards such as eWorks, Building Information Modelling (BIM), International Cost Management Standard (ICMS), and the Capital Works Management Framework (CWMF) website
• Driving legislative and regulatory reform for infrastructure, including reforms to judicial review, critical infrastructure designation and setting out principles for better regulation
• Monitoring major public investment projects, supporting the Major Projects Advisory Group, and providing improved data, insights and communications to strengthen public confidence in infrastructure delivery
As set out under Pillar 3 of the Accelerating Infrastructure Report, greater coordination and monitoring on project delivery is now in place with a particular focus on updating the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure on the current status of the highest priority projects within the NDP. This work continues across 2026.
My Department has implemented several safeguards and strategic frameworks to ensure that large-scale public infrastructure contracts are completed on time and within budget.
The Infrastructure Guidelines, published in 2023 set the key requirements for project governance over a project’s lifecycle. The Guidelines cover the evaluation of projects and their proper planning and management once approval in principle is obtained.
The Guidelines have replaced the Public Spending Code and significantly, have reduced the number of approval stages and have streamlined the requirements for major projects, while retaining the international best practice governance and oversight arrangements already in place.
These arrangements sharpen the focus on risk and cost management and reduces the compliance burden on low-risk projects, which brings Ireland into line with leading international approaches to major project delivery.
Standard procurement and contract templates are published under the Capital Works Management Framework (CWMF) which apply to projects that are majority Exchequer-funded. There are several cost control review points set out within key stages of a project’s design evolution which utilise standard reporting templates.
It is a general principle that projects to which the CWMF applies are put out to tender on the basis of a comprehensively defined set of project requirements so that tenderers can provide a lump sum price for the completion of the project. However major infrastructure projects, due to their scale, duration and risk profile often require bespoke contractual strategies not catered for under the CWMF. Typically these projects use standard forms of contracts which are used internationally in order to attract as wide a field as possible to tender.
These contracts bear many similarities with the standard form of public works contract with clearly defined circumstances where the price and the date for completion may be adjusted. They typically employ comprehensive change management procedures which must be adhered to by both parties. Where they differ from the CWMF contracts is in the pricing structure and the inclusion of incentives to deliver the project on time and within budget.
My Department actively engages with the European Commission regarding the Public Procurement Data Space and the development of procurement policy at the European level, while working closely with the Office of the Attorney General.
In relation to the aspect of European Union directive transposition timelines across Departments and agencies, as the Deputy will be aware, the transposition of EU legal Acts issued in the form of Directives is the responsibility of the relevant Minister depending on the subject matter.
Many EU Directives provide for timelines within the legal text to guide the transposition obligations of Member States. It is a matter for each Minister to provide for the appropriate mechanism and timing for such transposing legislation. This can include consultation with the Office of the Attorney General.
My obligations in such matters extend only to the areas of my remit as Minister.
Public procurement is reported on nationally every three years in line with Regulation 84, SI 284/2016 and Article 84, Directive EU/24/2014. Reporting is aggregated and based on information drawn from eTenders, the national etendering platform. Separately, my department utilises eTenders data to interrogate public procurement across a range of topics. eTenders data largely derives from procurement notices published on the platform. Each contracting authority is responsible for the publication of competition and results notices. Accurate and timely publication of notices directly impacts national reporting and our analysis of the public procurement landscape. My department actively encourages the publication of notices, particularly contract award notices. Recent upgrades made to eTenders platform now makes this task easier for all public sector buyers.
Separately, the European Commission reports on public procurement performance across the EU annually via the Single Market and Competitiveness Scoreboard. For each EEA country, eight performance indicators serve to rank access to public procurement. The data used to measure performance is drawn from the Public Procurement Data Space based on data collected via Tenders Electronic daily (TED). This public data space is a flagship initiative for the Commission and IE has secured Technical Support Funding (TSI) funding to enable onboarding to the PPDS in the coming 18-24 months. This will result in automatic national reporting, reducing the administration burden nationally, and allow Ireland greater access to EEA-wide procurement data essential for benchmarking performance, developing public procurement policy and increasing transparency and accountability nationally.
