I met the Minister for Justice about this matter yesterday. I would hope that by the summer we might have the outlines of how we would deal with this issue. The Minister for Justice has emphasised the importance of this issue to me and I am aware of the consequences it has for members of An Garda Síochána who have retired and the fact that these numbers are now growing.

I can simply say I take the Deputy's point. I am aware of the issue. Several Deputies have raised it with me, as has the Minister for Justice in recent months. We are looking at a way of trying to find a solution to this issue and I take on board the point made by the Deputy.

I emphasise that work on the heads of the Bill is significantly advanced. I want to be in a position to bring proposals to the Government very shortly.

I aim to deal with both those matters. I aim to deal with the issue of liabilities and how they are registered and I also aim to bring forward proposals regarding strengthening the powers of SIPO to allow it to initiate its own investigations.

I am very much aware of the Bill brought forward by Deputies Mairéad Farrell and Buckley last year. It contained several different provisions relating to this matter. The legislation proposed had seven sections in total and many dealt with powers regarding the Standards in Public Office Commission. As I said, I will be bringing forward an approach that will deal with some of the issues the Sinn Féin Bill referred to, while also addressing a number of other matters. I am aiming to be in a position to be able to brin…

Vote allocations are decided as part of the Estimates process each year. Following publication of the summer economic statement, the Secretary General of my Department writes to all other Departments requesting proposals for the upcoming budget, including where they consider additional funding to be required. These requests are then assessed as part of preparations for the budget. Managing expenditure within the allocations included in the Revised Estimates Volume, REV, for public services is voted on by the Dáil a…

The Department of Justice is very well funded but of course always makes the case for more funding to respond back to the many pressures and challenges it has to contend with. The Department of Justice and An Garda Síochána take extremely seriously and I believe, manage in a very responsible way, the issues of how we keep our communities safe and in particular any threats that may be posed by those who have committed crimes of a sexual nature in the past. It is important to say that at the moment we face many diffe…

The Department of Justice absolutely treats all such issues with the seriousness they deserve, supports An Garda Síochána in its work in keeping those in our country safe and dealing with those who may have committed crimes in the past, particularly as I said, those of a sexual nature. The Department of Justice understandably will continue to make the case for additional funding. However, if the Deputy looks at the funding it has received in recent years, there have been very significant increases in its budget. In…

Government expenditure policy is framed around the medium-term economic strategy which has two objectives, to ensure the long-term sustainability of core expenditure growth and to ensure that the investment in expenditure delivers improvement in public services and infrastructure. As outlined in the stability programme update published last week, the Government is providing investment of €97 billion across the public service to protect living standards, improve public services and safeguard our future through enhan…

Yes, I am, but it continues to be a challenge, one I and my predecessors have faced over many years because in some cases, Government spending can be ahead of profile. Despite the best efforts of all involved, that has required Supplementary Estimates. All that being said, however, we have to look at where overall Government expenditure has been in the last number of years. It has grown at a moderate pace, if we look at total Government expenditures in the context of what has happened with inflation within our econ…

The inflation would be on two different levels. It would relate to supply where, undoubtedly, from a capital point of view, we have seen cost pressure and pressure with tendering and supply chains, which is driven by all the economic developments of which Deputy Durkan will be very aware. For want of a better phrase, I would not at all use inflation with regard to demand. I do not think that would be an appropriate phrase to use. There has been a heightened need for certain public services, however, both during and…

The Deputy is aware of the value of the overall national development plan and the number of years over which the money will be spent, so I will not go into those facts and figures now. Rather, I will cut to the question he asked about national strategic outcome, NSO, 10. NSO 10 refers to access to quality childcare, education and health services and aims to ensure that the co-ordination and provision of childcare places, primary and post-primary schools places and health infrastructure with the spatial development …

The Deputy pointed out the important role special schools play with regard to the movement of pupils from primary to post-primary. I can absolutely assure him that in my engagement with the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, and formerly with her predecessor, Deputy Madigan, the importance of special schools is fully recognised by the Department of Education. In any discussion I have had with them on capital funding, special schools have been given the status they deserve. They will…

I have visited such a school myself and am absolutely aware of their importance. So many girls and boys who have additional needs need to be supported and educated in a very different school environment. I have seen the impact a couple of these schools have made and the difference they can make to the life journeys of students and their families. I again assure the Deputy that in all the engagement I have had with the Department of Education over many years, the issue of capital funding for special schools receives…

I am not aware of any of it being unspent. The urgency of this is appreciated and I can assure the Deputy that whenever I meet the Minister and her Department to discuss capital funding, they give the focus to special schools that he is seeking.

As the Deputy knows, we have a national development plan of €165 billion over the coming years, which was published early in the lifetime of this Government. We have added to that with the allocation of a further €2.25 billion between 2024 and 2026, which follows the conclusion of more than 30 meetings between me and ministerial colleagues. In 2024, we now have €13 billion available; in 2025, €14.35 billion; and in 2026, €15.46 billion, one of the highest levels of capital investment as a share of national income i…

In terms of speedy progress, I have identified two matters. The first one is our efforts to ensure that we have enough companies tendering for public service contracts so that we have an adequate level of competition within the tendering process to allow key projects to go ahead. The second relates to the continued challenges we have with cost-price inflation. We are not seeing the surges in the delivery of projects that we saw in recent years. The cost of projects is now far higher than it was before inflation sur…

There can be a number of factors behind a delay in a project. I highlighted to Deputy Durkan what in my experience are the two key reasons. I will make the general observation that there is always a demand for more projects to go ahead than there is funding available at any given time. All Ministers want to be in a position to spend more and to allow many more projects to go ahead that they and their communities want to see happen. Even with the huge increases in capital expenditure that we have, and that we have p…

I thank the Deputy for this important question. In budget 2024, a sum of €4.5 billion was allocated for non-core issues. These are costs that are driven by external developments or additional EU-funded projects that had to be reflected in our expenditure ceiling. The allocation covered pressures such as our humanitarian response to the arrivals fleeing war in Ukraine, legacy Covid issues and matters relating to, for example, the national recovery and resilience plan. I have already explained to Deputy Nash some of …

The stability programme update did not make reference to non-core expenditure. In one recent stability programme update we did make reference to non-core expenditure and in another we did not. The Government has not made a decision yet on whether there will be a concept of non-core spending used in budget 2025. I acknowledge the benefits of non-core expenditure, which I emphasised earlier, but non-core expenditure referred to issues that we genuinely believed to be temporary. We have to seriously consider whether s…