28. Deputy John Clendennen asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation the way in which his Department is ensuring that investment under the National Development Plan supports balanced regional development, particularly in growing regional towns where deficits in water, transport and other enabling infrastructure are constraining development. [74580/26]

Investment in infrastructure and infrastructure delivery are key priorities for Government. As highlighted in the Programme for Government, delivery of essential infrastructure is a key driver in ensuring our economy’s competitiveness and resilience, and is also a means of fostering balanced regional development.

More broadly, the achievement of balanced regional development is a key priority of this Government and is at the heart of Project Ireland 2040, which includes the National Planning Framework (NPF), which sets out the overarching spatial strategy for the next twenty years, along with the National Development Plan.

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 each Ministerial Expenditure Ceiling, it is a matter for each Minister to assign funding as appropriate at programme and subhead level for their Departments and the agencies under their remit taking into account the demands for services in different areas and regions, having regard to demographics and other relevant factors.

In the past five years, more than €65 billion has been invested in capital infrastructure projects across our country to improve people’s lives through the National Development Plan (NDP), with total capital investment in 2026 estimated at close to €19.1 billion by end-year. This represents the highest annual spend to date in this country and this level of investment is going to increase even further.

The revised National Development Plan, published in July, set out €275.4 billion in public capital investment to 2035 – the largest and most significant capital injection in our economy in the history of the State.

Over the end of 2025, and early 2026, individual Ministers published sectoral level investment plans, for priority investment programmes and projects within their additional capital allocations for delivery across the country.

These sectoral investment plans are required to align the planned investment with the National Planning Framework (NPF) objectives for which they are responsible. The NDP aligns with the NPF, Ireland's planning and spatial strategy, to form Project Ireland 2040, our overarching national strategy for social, economic and cultural development. In this way, Government is ensuring that the planned NDP investment is aligned with the objective of balanced regional development. In considering sectoral needs and Ministerial decisions, these plans reflect Government priorities, including the National Planning Framework's commitment to balanced regional development.

Since Project Ireland 2040 was first launched in 2018, the Government has overseen the delivery of many impactful NDP projects across the country, including in water, transport and key enabling infrastructure across the country in regional towns.

Further details on historically delivered projects are available via the Project Ireland 2040 map and tracker, and the Annual and Regional Reports available on gov.ie.

A wide range of enabling infrastructure is also planned under the current NDP, including for example:

• Development of the Uisce Eireann Water Supply Project in the Eastern and Midlands region with benefits for Tipperary, Offaly and Westmeath;

• The extension of training facilities in the Laois Offaly Education Training Board;

• New transport infrastructure with key projects the Donegal Ten T project, Bus Connects Galway, Limerick and Waterford and national and regional roads investments across all four provinces; and

• Housing developments in cities and towns across the country.

Further specific details on projects are available in the Departmental level sectoral plans, which are available on each Departmental website.