-----but also improve efficiencies and strengthen the focus on reform. That is my priority in the months ahead.

I thank Deputy Farrell. The annual Bilderberg conference is a forum to foster dialogue between Europe and North America on major issues facing the world, with attendees from industry, finance, government, academia and the media. The meeting was first held in 1954 and has been regularly attended by Irish Government Ministers on many occasions in recent years. I was invited and attended this year’s event, held in April 2026, in my capacity as Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and …

The Deputy and her party fully understand, in the context of the party's participation in the Executive in the North, the importance of international engagement, foreign direct investment and engagement with the business community. As I said, the role in the context of the attendance at Bilderberg and meeting the US Chamber of Commerce is always to promote Ireland, to engage with many people who invest here and also political leaders in Europe and elsewhere. It is important, as an open, trading economy that we do t…

All the attendees at the conference are published on the Bilderberg website, as is the specific agenda across many topics. As I have said it was AI, Arctic security, digital finance, energy diversification, Europe, global trade and the Middle East. It is attended by public representatives - members of government - from parts of Europe and the US, industry leaders and also by members of the media. The wider organisation's meeting agenda, respective press releases and what is discussed are set out. It has been attend…

The National Shared Services Office, NSSO, a body under the aegis of the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, provides HR, pension, payroll and finance shared services to Government Departments and offices. As part of its remit, it transacts HR, payroll, pension and finance administration for public and civil servants on behalf of 54 client public service bodies. In relation to pension and additional superannuation contribution, ASC, contributions for Ministers…

As the Deputy knows, given its remit, the wider work of the NSSO is done independently of me. I am not aware of who the current or former Ministers are. The NSSO is trying to progress the remaining number. They all should and must enter into a repayment plan. The NSSO said that the latest correspondence has issued this month. There needs to be full repayment, and I have said that consistently. All current Ministers and Ministers of State have entered into a repayment plan or have fully repaid it, or have been repai…

The total number of individuals was 82, which included current and former Ministers of State, officeholders and a small number of civil servants. Some 17% of that is what remains. We know that the cohort relating to current Ministers has been accounted for. I do not have the specifics. What I have been told is that the aggregate miscalculation was €359,000, and that 17%, or €62,000, remains. The vast majority of what was owed has been repaid or is in a recoupment plan. Of the 82 cases identified, 63 are now closed.…

The programme for Government commits to updating the ethics in public office legislation. I assure the Deputy that this remains a priority. I have updated Government colleagues this week with a memorandum for information on the progress that is being made. However, as the Deputy is aware, this is a complex area and careful consideration is required across a range of issues before detailed proposals are progressed. I want to advance the programme for Government commitment, which represents an opportunity to make rea…

The purpose of bringing a memorandum to Government was to update colleagues on the progress being made around the policy context here. What we are seeking to do, rather than just adding additional legislative provisions, which obviously will be advanced through a general scheme, is to ensure that we digitalise and simplify the process of making a return and that has to be future proofed around particular legislation. It will make it a much better and more transparent system. What we are seeking to do in the context…

It is important to ensure we future proof the legislative provisions or a general scheme. Even in the past year or two there has been a change of context. If we look back at the experience with the 2015 public sector standards Bill, it did not progress and it lapsed. It is important to ensure that any legislation or scheme we introduce is progressed and enacted. There is no reopening of it, to be clear. What we are trying to do is ensure that we draft the scheme in the context of future proofing it. It should be si…

As Minister for public expenditure, I am responsible for setting the overall capital allocations across Departments and for monitoring monthly expenditure at Departmental level. As part of the budgetary process each year, my Department sets overall expenditure ceilings for each ministerial Vote group. These are laid out at Vote level in the budget day expenditure report published in October, with further detail provided in the Revised Estimates for public services published in December. Following the allocation of …

I thank the Deputy for the question. I met with some of the management team for the development board with our by-election candidate, Councillor Cillian Keane, Deputy John Connolly and Senator Ollie Crowe in recent weeks. I fully appreciate the need for improved bed capacity for the west of Ireland and for Galway. It is absolutely required, which is why the Government and the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, have significantly strengthened the capital allocation to the Department of Health to ensure we…

It absolutely needs to progress quickly. Part of that is to do with ensuring that the HSE is efficient in how it turns around the design proposals. We must also look at how we get it into the planning process and turned around quickly. In what we set out in the infrastructure reforms, part of the improvement to accelerate infrastructure may involve designation for any project. The other elements are about ensuring that we have better performance across the lifecycle of a project from the point at which someone has …

I propose to take Question Nos. 10, 53, 55 and 61 together. As Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitisation, I am responsible for setting the overall expenditure allocations and monitoring it at Departmental level. In the programme for Government, there is a clear prioritisation of the NDP review to ensure that investment for strategic infrastructure can be maximised in the coming five years. This includes the key areas of energy, water and transport on which all future de…

A practical example is the wastewater treatment plant in respect of which 26 weeks have been saved due to the removal of the external assurance process and reviews, as well as changes to the thresholds that I introduced in reforms to the infrastructure guidelines. The latter was an additional step that added time. Under the wider assessment carried out last year, we had to measure the time it had taken some of these processes against the cost of delay. That example of the wastewater treatment plant should be replic…

I know the matter of Irish Water and its engagement with public representatives has been raised a number of times. Irish Water is on the infrastructure task force, and I will take the Deputy's comments away as a need to strengthen engagement. The challenge last year was a funding one. There had been consistent issues and concerns within both the construction sector, which works in partnership with Irish Water, and Irish Water itself about the level of funding and its capital plans. We responded to that with a €12 b…

The latest fiscal monitor, published on 6 May, showed that at the end of April gross voted expenditure amounted to €36 billion. This is a €2.9 billion, or 8.9%, increase compared with April 2025 and reflects the implementation of the priorities set out in budget 2026 and the significant uplift in expenditure to support programme for Government commitments. Compared with the profiles set out by Departments for their planned spending over the year, this was €600 million, or 1.8%, below profile. Looking at the composi…

I will come back with a supplementary answer.

Obviously, that was and is an important fiscal intervention to respond to the energy spike we have seen, particularly with respect to the transport and the agriculture sectors. We are following the wider guidance we see from the IMF and others, that is, that schemes should be temporary, targeted and time bound in order that they do not involve permanent expenditure implications. We have said consistently that in July, when some of the interventions are due to lapse, we will assess that in the context of the energy …

As the Deputy knows, in the annual progress report that is published, we expect to run a general government surplus of about €9 billion this year. We are running a surplus, which makes the case for the importance of having fiscal buffers in a world which is so uncertain in the context of geopolitical conflict and when we have spending demands every day in this House across multiple areas. It is important that we review that in July and that we are careful in the context of further interventions. We know from the Co…