The Government will prioritise “cost and efficiency over design standards and aesthetics” when it comes to future infrastructure spending after the cost overruns and delays of the €2.24 billion national children’s hospital, the Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers has said.
“There needs to be much better discipline in cost effectiveness in projects,” Mr Chambers said in London. “That means making choices around cost and efficiency over design standards and aesthetics in some instances. There are important lessons out of the children’s hospital,” he said.
The Minister confirmed the Government will publish a review next month of the State’s €165 billion National Development Plan that will map out multiannual spending on specific projects into the medium term, instead of planning funding year-by-year.
“We have heard the concerns about the annualised nature of [current] funding and how that affects the pipeline of projects,” said the Minister. “Some commercial State bodies aren’t even sure on a year-to-year basis what projects they can commence.”
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He said a new approach to decide funding for a pipeline of projects over the longer term would “send a strong signal to the market that the projects are coming”.
Water, wastewater and energy projects will be prioritised over all other types of investment, along with transport infrastructure targeted at areas where new housing can be built. The review will also allocate an extra €20 billion for investment, comprised of back-taxes received from Apple, the State’s sale of AIB shares and other funds.
Mr Chambers spoke to The Irish Times on the margins of an insurance industry event at the City of London offices of the Fidelis Partnership, a specialist firm that covers risky events such as wars.
He said he was still in talks with other Ministers over infrastructural spending but hinted he planned to disappoint them with a “disciplined” focus on his core priorities of water, energy and transport to boost housing.
“There is always ambition in Government that exceeds what’s possible.” He said the core areas he intends to prioritise “are not optional extras”. He singled out investment in the power grid as one area to be prioritised at the expense of less urgent projects.
“We have an infrastructural deficit. We need to address that and front up to it. That means choices and trade-offs.”
The Minister said rules around capital spending in State departments and agencies will also be overhauled to cut red-tape and reduce “needless delays”.
