Ireland’s new infrastructure plan will focus on the functionality of projects as opposed to ‘award-winning’ designs, a junior minister has said, writes Brian Mahon.

The Government is to unveil its revised National Development Plan, outlining how €200bn will be spent across various departments over the next ten years.

It is understood that negotiation between most of the large departments and Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers went down to the wire last night over what they would be allocated.

The plan, funded by taxpayers’ money, some of the €14bn in Apple tax money and windfalls from sold State shares in AIB, is expected to focus on housing, energy, water and transport infrastructure. In an apparent reference to the National Children’s Hospital, a “state-of-the-art” public infrastructure project which has been criticised for ballooning to a cost of €2.2bn, junior transport minister Seán Canney said there would be an emphasis on functionality.

He told RTÉ Radio: “It is important that we deliver the projects, but also, and this is a key one, is that we deliver projects which are functional rather than being award winning, especially in housing and in hospital infrastructure – we need buildings that will function.”

“We don’t need to see an architect’s ego going wild. Are we to pay more money for something that’s not adding to the functionality?”

Among the main projects expected to be mentioned in the report is the long-awaited MetroLink, estimated to cost at least €9bn, though the Government has been warned the cost could inflate to €23bn.

Elsewhere, Irish Water will be watching closely for its allocation after it ran a robust media campaign in the last few months highlighting what it said it needed for capital investment.

Regional Independent TD Mr Canney, one of several in the Coalition with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, would not indicate which road projects would benefit from the plan, but suggested projects that are “shovel-ready” would be prioritised.

He told RTÉ Radio: “The first five years, up to 2030, are critical for us.

“We have money in that space to actually get books done and infrastructure put in place – water and sewerage – to allow us to build their housing.”

He added: “The biggest threat to everything we do, everything we plan is, of course, the [US] tariffs, where they’re going to land.”

He said more road projects would be given “the go-ahead” in an attempt to spread economic activity across the country.

The “broad figures” for each department will be announced later today.

Mr Canney said: “It gives departments the flexibility to look at the projects they have coming up, look at which projects are shovel-ready, and we can get them moving as quickly as possible, because in every department there is an urgency to implement, rather than to be creating more strategies.” The Summer Economic Statement is a key point in the budgetary cycle and sets out how much the State has to spend in the upcoming budget.

It is understood Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe and Minister Chambers, will note that the increase in protectionism, rising tariffs and the fragmentation of global supply chains pose a threat to Ireland’s economic model.

Mr Chambers will tell colleagues that the Coalition needs to “moderate” current spending as it plans to focus instead on increasing current spending at the same rate as the Government has over the last number of years.

Sources acknowledged this is a difficult message to sell.

Photo: Jack Chambers. Rollingnews.ie