Today, I want to discuss capital infrastructure projects and the legacy this Government can and should leave in the State in relation to important project delivery. We must ensure, while doing this, that we give value for money and that our spending is cost effective. I know that as a country we can do it all.
All around us, the largest companies in the world are at a cutting edge. A ten-minute walk from my house, we have one of the most sophisticated semiconductor foundries in Europe. Intel, even with Covid in the background for a period, was able to deliver a multibillion euro plant on time and on budget. Pfizer, with sites in Kildare and Cork, has spent billions, with companies like Amazon and Microsoft building too. This is done with Irish people at the helm - designing, building and overseeing these successful key projects. We need to ensure that the same rigorous application of high standards is shown to State investments. Through good strategic planning, we have seen our economy prosper, wealth being created and our population grow. With that, our infrastructure has become strained and that is why the Government, wisely, has put €275 billion aside for capital investment in infrastructure over the next ten years.
As a Government, we have also taken positive steps by passing the Critical Infrastructure Act. We have delivered the Accelerating Infrastructure Action Plan, set up the Housing Activation Office and published the detailed national development plan review. We know that we can do things right. The national broadband plan, despite much negativity from the other side of this House, has been a great success. The Luas cross-city extension, which improved public transport in the capital, along with the motorway extensions and bypasses, such as in Tuam and Macroom, have changed people's lives.
We can build and we can deliver but we also need to ensure that the €275 billion put aside for infrastructural spending is spent well. There must be accountability, oversight and consequences where the relevant State bodies fail to deliver. Be it failures from the initial scoping of the projects, lack of functionality or management overrides, it is not good enough for heads of State projects and CEOs to come before Oireachtas committees such as mine and the Committee of Public Accounts and talk retrospectively about cost overruns and delays in capital infrastructure. Many of them then shrug their shoulders when they come before us in the PAC, blaming those who came before them, which leads ultimately to no accountability. This is why I am highlighting this today. The people of Ireland need to be assured that the highest standards are being followed, that value for money is being sought and that infrastructure is being delivered economically and efficiently.
