Ireland’s revised National Development Plan (NDP), published on 22 July 2025, sets out a review of infrastructure strategy and planned government expenditure for capital projects over the next 10 years
The revised plan represents an additional €34billion in funding, totalling a €275.4 billion investment out to 2035. The funding, comprising €202.4 billion from the Exchequer, €63 billion from ”non exchequer capital” and €10 billion in equity and fund releases, will increase Ireland’s annual capital investment in infrastructure from 5% to 6.65% of GDP by 2030 and is set to position Ireland among Europe’s top infrastructure investors, in what the government is calling the most ambitious capital investment programme launched by the State.
What’s new?
The key change focuses on the increased budget, which adds around €34 billion to existing State investment plans between the years 2026 and 2030. This is a sizeable increase, as total spending over the period comes to just over €102 billion.
Accompanying the investment uplift, reforms have also been introduced to accelerate project delivery, including fast-track planning processes for major national projects and a simplification of the approval process for social and affordable housing.
So, where will the money be spent?
The €102.4 billion is allocated mostly across the government departments, apart from €10 billion earmarked for large infrastructure projects. Of those departments, the government has made its intentions clear to deliver on its ambitious housing targets with the Department for Housing, Local Government and Heritage receiving the largest budget (€35.95bn), followed by Transport at €23.3bn. Health (€9.3bn), Education (€7.6bn), and Climate, Environment and Energy (€5.6bn) are next.
Outside of government departments, €3.5 billion will be shared across ESB and EirGrid to fund essential grid enhancement and capacity works, a combined €4,5 billion (€2bn for projects to support housing and a further €2.5bn for large scale water infrastructure projects) goes to Uisce Éireann, and €2bn will go to the Metrolink project.
Faster delivery and infrastructure reforms, but thin on proposed projects
Alongside changes to the planning system, there are plans for infrastructure delivery to be overhauled with a series of measures to reduce delays. To support delivery, the plan outlines a new infrastructure division in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform ‘DPER’, an ‘Accelerating Infrastructure Taskforce’ and the mandating of standardised designs, specifications and promotion of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC).
The Government is upgrading the ‘Project Ireland 2040 tracker’, an interactive online tool developed by the Government to monitor and report progress on funded infrastructure projects. Arguably, the 49 page document is light in terms how those budgets will be spent, but more detail as to exactly how and what government departments plan to spend their budgets on are likely to land ahead in the lead up to the budget, which is set for 7 October 2025.
If you’re interested in finding out more about the NDP, sign up to our upcoming webinar on 3 September, ‘Unpacking Ireland’s National Development Plan’: https://app.livestorm.co/p/75ca724a-e582-48f9-aa5e-07399ad2cfb9
If you’d like to know more about Copper’s work in Ireland, please email james.hillier@copperconsultancy.com.