Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 12 November 2025
574. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport the level of foresight or future planning that operates within his Department; who is responsible for long-term planning; the input these individuals or teams have into Departmental policy and practice; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61657/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraForesight and future planning within my Department takes into consideration the Department’s commitments in the Programme for Government, broader national long-term plans, recommendations, and goals set out in, for example, Project Ireland 2040; the recently published ‘Future Forty’, which provides a long-term fiscal and economic assessment of Ireland’s needs out to 2065; and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as well as my Department's Statement of Strategy which is currently being developed for the period 2025 to 2028 and which I intend to publish shortly.
Long-term planning is undertaken by the relevant business units when developing the Department’s policies across its sectors. My Department's Coordination and Governance Unit ensures the integration of the business planning process across the Department. The Department’s Finance and Human Resources units consider long-term resource planning along with learning and skills requirements. This is facilitated by the Strategic Policy Unit, members of which liaise with cross-governmental structures such as the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Unit, the Civil Service Research Network, and the Climate Action Unit Network. This helps ensure that long-term economic, planning, climate and sustainability considerations are integrated into the development of new Departmental policy as well as in practice, such as when awarding grants.
My Department has recently submitted an updated sectoral plan under the National Development Plan to the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation. Arts and culture, sport, media, and digital connectivity will all play a role in serving our growing, aging, population. My Department is helping to prepare students for a digital future by working with the Department of Education and Youth to connect schools with high-speed internet broadband, and is also helping to prepare young people for an active future, for example providing dedicated funding to support and train the high-performance athletes of tomorrow. A part of investing in our future is ensuring that children grow up online safely. My Department is supporting and funding Coimisiún na Meán, Ireland’s independent online safety and media regulator, in enforcing the Online Safety Code, in delivering public awareness campaigns about online safety, and in requiring age assurance measures for online platforms. Supporting our digital future, National Broadband Ireland is rolling out a high-speed and future-proofed broadband network across all non-commercial areas in every county, reaching over one million people in over 560,000 premises.
