Better Public Services article: Dublin Economics Workshop 2025

On Friday 19 September, Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, Jack Chambers delivered the opening address at the Dublin Economics Workshop (DEW) in Wexford. Founded in 1980, the DEW is an annual conference which provides a unique space where the public service, elected representatives, academia, private sector, media and professional economists meet to discuss public policy issues in an informal manner.

Minister Chambers focused his remarks on the Government’s determination to remove obstacles and delays to the roll-out of infrastructure. He highlighted the need to continue the ongoing reform of the planning system, and stated that the efficient delivery of outputs was a key challenge for the State and a key focus of the Government, adding that after the budget a comprehensive set of reforms and actions designed to overcome these planning and construction barriers would be published.

Following delivery of his keynote remarks, the Minister participated in a Q&A session which was chaired by Rowena Dwyer, Head of the Data and Evaluation Unit in the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

Throughout the two-day conference:

• Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage James Browne delivered the William Petty Lecture
• Deputy Governor Central Bank of Ireland, Vasileios Madouros delivered the Richard Cantillon lecture
• Jasmina Behan (Assistant Secretary, Work and Pensions Division, DPER), presented on ‘Securing Ireland’s Future: Maximising the Impact of Public Expenditure’.
• James Shaw (AP, National Investment Office, DPER), presented on ‘Investing in Critical Infrastructure: National Development Plan Review 2025’.

The workshop was organised by the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES). Find out more about their work on the IGEES webpage.

Read more newsletter articles or subscribe.