As Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitisation, I am responsible for setting overall capital allocations across Departments and monitoring monthly expenditure.
Responsibility for the management and delivery of individual investment projects and sectoral policies, within allocations agreed under the National Development Plan (NDP), rests with the relevant sponsoring Department. Each Minister decides the priority programmes and projects to be delivered within their NDP allocation and sets delivery timelines. Expenditure is therefore allocated and monitored on a Departmental rather than geographical basis.
The NDP Review 2025, published in July 2025, committed €275.4 billion in public capital investment to 2035, together with an additional €10 billion in equity release to 2030. This includes €3.5 billion for energy grid capacity, €4.5 billion for water infrastructure and €2 billion for low-carbon transport, including MetroLink.
Departments subsequently published sectoral investment plans outlining capital projects to be prioritised between 2026 and 2030. These plans provide visibility of the delivery pipeline and planned investment across the country.
Complementing this capital investment, the Accelerating Infrastructure Report and Action Plan (AIRAP), published in December 2025, outlined reforms to speed up delivery of critical infrastructure and support implementation of the NDP.
The Action Plan addresses 12 key barriers and sets out 30 time-bound actions under four reform pillars aimed at accelerating infrastructure delivery. As part of these reforms, my Department coordinates regular updates from Departments to the Senior Officials’ Group on Infrastructure and the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure on progress of major projects in the health, transport, energy, housing and communications sectors.
Major projects that will benefit North Dublin and are reviewed on an ongoing basis include:
• MetroLink
• Luas Finglas
• National Surgical Hubs Programme
• Greater Dublin Drainage Project
• Fingal–East Meath Grid Reinforcement
• Powering Up Dublin
Regular updates on these projects are provided to the Senior Officials’ Group and Cabinet Committee to ensure effective oversight, monitor progress and identify risks and interdependencies at an early stage.
As Ireland's population continues to grow, the timely delivery of critical infrastructure in areas such as energy, water, transport and housing will remain a key priority for Government. The reforms being implemented under the Accelerating Infrastructure Report are designed to support a more coordinated and effective approach to infrastructure planning, prioritisation and delivery across Government.
