Press release
Minister McGrath publishes Phase 1 Report - Review of the National Development Plan
From Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform
Published on
Last updated on
The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Michael McGrath TD, today (Sunday), published the
Phase 1 Report - Review of the National Development Plan.
The work carried out as part of Phase 1 sets the scene for the important decisions to be made as the NDP Review process reaches completion.
The report, prepared by the National Investment Office in the Department of Public Expenditure & Reform, sets out a strong evidence base including:
• Macro-Economic analysis
• Public Capital Expenditure and Infrastructure Demand Analyses
• Consideration of Climate Action, Housing and Planning; and
• Alignment with the National Planning Framework.
The Phase 1 report includes detail of the successful public consultation process, Review to Renew, which generated 572 submissions.
The proposals and suggestions from a wide range of agencies, organisations and the wider public clearly highlight ambitions for the coming decade. For example, there was near-consensus on the vital importance of Climate Action, Balanced Regional Development and Sustainable Housing.
Commenting on the Phase 1 Report, Minister McGrath said:
“The revised NDP will set new five year rolling Departmental capital allocations and overall ten year capital ceilings out to 2030 and support economic, social, environmental and cultural development all across the country. Even as we grapple with the pandemic, the NDP Review allows us to map out our shared future. All of the analysis that we have done to date, and all of the feedback we have received from our public consultation process, reinforce the priority commitments set out in the Programme for Government, in particular action on Climate Change, a desire for strong Regional Balance and the urgency of providing Sustainable Housing.
"Capital investment is now at all-time high of €10.8 billion in 2021. This commitment to capital investment acts as an important economic stabiliser and stimulus and will help to underpin business confidence and power our recovery from the Covid-19 emergency. With such a strong and sustained commitment comes the requirement to ensure planned, targeted and well-managed public expenditure. The recent update to the Public Spending Code strengthens the project delivery process and puts greater emphasis than ever before on achieving value for money, managing risk and taking advantage of technology and innovation".
“Our focus is on delivery. We have set in train major upgrades in public sector capacity and new assurance processes for mega-projects. The revised NDP will play an essential role in shaping our responses to the needs of the present, and also prepare us for the challenges of the future. I will bring forward the revised NDP for publication later this year".
ENDS
Notes for Editors
The revised NDP will set out ten year sectoral capital allocations out to 2030 and support economic, social, environmental and cultural development all across the country, in parallel with the National Planning Framework (NPF) which sets the overarching spatial strategy to 2040.
It is important to note that the NDP is fundamentally a high-level financial and budgetary plan, which sets out the framework and broad direction for investment priorities. It includes indicative Exchequer allocations to support the delivery of the ten national strategic outcomes identified in the National Planning Framework.
The NDP is not an exhaustive list of all the public investment projects that will take place over the next ten years. However, where sufficient planning and evaluation has already taken place the NDP contains expenditure commitments for a range of Strategic Investment Priorities which have been determined by the relevant Departments as central to the delivery of the NPF vision. All of these commitments require evaluation along with the development of business cases in line with the requirements of the Public Spending Code before they are formally approved for implementation.
It should be noted that DPER, in carrying out its role in coordinating the NDP review, does not consider the merit of individual projects or sectoral policy strategies as this is primarily a matter for individual Departments and Agencies. Individual projects are selected based on a detailed process which begins with Departments or Agencies setting their own sectoral strategy and goals, and then subsequently identifying specific needs or challenges to be addressed, whether that be through education, regulation, taxation or potentially expenditure on an infrastructure project.