Last week, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement called on the British Government to withdraw the legacy Bill because of the grave concerns all members of that committee had regarding the implications of that Bill. The committee will ask the Irish Government to consider inter-state litigation in the European Court of Human Rights in order to demonstrate tangible support and solidarity for victims and campaigners by sparing them the costly and arduous task of bringing indi…

It disappoints me that the Minister does not understand the context or the seriousness of the problem in the short term. All of the providers who are present, whom I welcome to the Gallery, have been in touch with our party and with the Minister. They are not just making up the crisis that is there. There is a real crisis there at the moment. The Minister stated that the fair deal scheme provides certainties for families and to nursing homes but I remind him that if there are no nursing homes there, then that certa…

What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that the public expenditure on consulting contracts does not expose the State to risks through the loss of expertise over time within the public sector and the sharing of sensitive information with private economic actors?

Over time, the over-reliance on public consultants leads to the loss of expertise and institutional knowledge in the public sector. Recent revelations in Australia have raised the potential for an even more immediate risk, the risk of sharing highly sensitive information with private consultants and then using that information for their own commercial gain. What steps has the Minister taken to ensure that public expenditure on consulting contracts does not expose the State to these risks? Like RTÉ, those in the wor…

I thank the Minister for that, but the question I asked was whether he had sought information from PwC. Was he concerned about what happened in Australia and the connection to Ireland? Notwithstanding all of the guarantees and safeguards he says are there, I would have thought that if something like this happened, the Minister would have sought extra assurance. The top tier of PwC has simply not approached this in an open and transparent manner. The internal review the Minister mentioned is an attempt to avoid tran…

I ask the Minister to outline his Department's role in the oversight and supervision of capital delivery projects in line Departments. The Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform always had a role in overseeing the delivery of the capital projects. To make that even more clear the Department was recently renamed to specifically include the delivery of the national development plan in the name of the Department. Will the Minister outline the exact role of the Department in ens…

The Minister has outlined the role in terms of oversight but I want to ask about the Department's capacity to deliver real and meaningful oversight. We have the ongoing financial horror story of the national children's hospital and the underspending in housing during a housing crisis. The most recent figures show the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is 26% behind profile, with some €166 million unspent this year. I note spending should have been €637 million by the end of May but only €472 milli…

It is not about providing them.

I mean having that expertise.

That is what I am trying to get at, namely whether the expertise and the capacity are there to test technically, as much as from an accounting perspective. I do not believe it is enough to just allocate funding to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage or to the Department of Transport and then fail to have an oversight mechanism for the State to ensure that those Departments will be able to deliver the projects on the ground. The Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Deliver…

Thank you for letting me in, a Chathaoirligh. Deputy Stanton has asked a vital question. As I said in my previous contribution, the underspend in the Department of Transport last year was €193 million. The N17 project needs only a small allocation to continue its development for such vital infrastructure. It does not make sense at all. I know the Minister will say it is for the Department of Transport to examine and the project is its responsibility but somebody in his Department not only needs to examine these cas…

I appreciate that the Minister of State may not have the details now but it is my understanding that the Crossmolina flood relief scheme is waiting to be signed off in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. All of the environmental reports have been done and, as I understand it, everything else has been done. We are just waiting for it to be signed off. Will the Minister of State let me have an update on that and confirm whether that is actually the case? That is the in…

I ask the Minister of State about the potential and the capacity within his Department to undertake all-island projects on biodiversity. There is huge potential in this regard particularly with the oncoming PEACEPLUS programme and the elements within that for biodiversity. Is there capacity or is there an intention within the Department to facilitate communities to twin with other communities? I always think of our own Ballycastle, County Mayo, which could be twinned with, say, Ballycastle in the North to be able t…

Will the Minister outline the progress towards enhancing productivity in the construction sector, including the utilisation of modern methods of construction, MMC, as committed to in the programme for Government? The programme states: Work to enhance productivity in the construction sector includes utilising modern methods of construction. This work will be guided by the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. Given the ongoing housing crisis, will the Minister outline the p…

I thank the Minister. This is the way forward in procurement but I will quote David Browne, a member of the RIAI, last month when the organisation was before the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Modern methods of construction, if adopted at scale in Ireland, can have an important role to play in meeting the targets of the National Development Plan by helping to address current significant productivity, labour and skills challenges. It is important to understand that the application of mode…

I am glad we agree on that. I would be interested in the timescale for that. Will the Minister work with the line Departments to implement mandated targets for the use of modern methods of construction in public sector programmes to establish that consistent level of demand? If targets are put in there, that will bring extra focus into what we are trying to achieve here.

Will the Minister outline the progress made on reforming public procurement to improve the environmental, economic and social impacts, making particular reference to the objective of including the green criteria we talked about earlier in all procurement using public funds, which was to be completed within three years as committed in the programme for Government? As I have outlined, procurement is a powerful tool for implementing reform. This was recognised by the Government in the inclusion of green criteria in al…

I thank the Minister of State for all that. He rightly said a circular was published in 2019 promoting the use of environmental and social considerations in public procurement. Then the programme for Government set a specific deadline of this week for the inclusion of the green criteria in all procurement using public funds and nothing like that level of ambition seems to have been achieved. Is there a revised deadline on that and when will we see the inclusion of green criteria in all procurement using public fund…

What concerns me is we seem to present lots of guidelines, and rightly so, but if we do not break those down into actual obligations for what the different bodies need to do then we find the outcomes are not what we might have hoped they would be. Thus, we need to look at some other mechanisms and targets to ensure we are getting the outcomes we need.

The public spending code was updated in December 2019. When will the infrastructure guidelines be published on the public spending code? Will the Minister outline how the changes announced so far will increase speed and efficiency in the delivery of capital projects? The key to delivering a project on time and on budget is to get the design and the planning phase right. There are no magic shortcuts. The national children's hospital delays and the skyrocketing costs were not caused by any administrative budget. I am…