NTA Cost Management Guidelines (Updated 2024) & NTA Inflation Bulletin

National Transport Authority Cost Management Guidelines

The National Transport Authority (NTA) is the “Approving Authority” for public transport projects in the metropolitan areas of Dublin, Cork Galway, Limerick and Waterford, as well as urban active travel projects nationwide. Projects funded by the NTA are generally proposed by the NTA’s partner organisations known as Sponsoring Agencies. To fulfil our statutory duty to secure the provision of public transport infrastructure on a value for money basis, the NTA requires that Sponsoring Agencies follow these Guidelines with respect to cost estimation, cost profiling, cost reporting and the general management of costs.

Sponsoring Agencies are required to follow these CMG’s in implementing these processes, ensuring that the NTA is informed on all cost related issues and that at each milestone in the development of a project the NTA is consulted and sufficiently informed about the developing project costs to make informed decisions in relation to the application of exchequer monies.

The NTA Cost Management Guidelines have been designed to assist Sponsoring Agencies with the development of appropriate scheme budgets in line with the requirements of the NTA Project Approval Guidelines (PAG’s Phase 1-7). The Guidelines are broken into three cost bands, Band 1 – €0-€500k, Band 2 – €500k – €10m, and Band 3 – €10m and Above, and have been structured to allow Sponsoring Agencies easily identify processes, primary cost management deliverables and minimum cost reporting requirements.
** originally published on 14th March 2023, Updated on 23rd February 2024

Please see below template appendices relating to these guidelines:

These templates have examples of completed forms and spreadsheets

Download Documents / spreadsheets below

Templates:

These templates have blank forms and spreadsheets.

NTA Cost Management Templates

Band 2 (€0.5 to €10m)

 

NTA Cost Management Templates

Band 3 (Exceeding €10m)

The bulletin intends to provide insights to Consultants in the preparation of their cost estimates to better inform their project estimates in which the NTA is the approving authority.

The bulletin will be updated annually, or earlier if the macroeconomic conditions continue unstable.

The latest version of the bulletin was published in February 2024, replacing the May 2023 bulletin and October 2023 supplementary note.  It should be used to provide guidance to Sponsoring Agencies on the treatment of future inflation from February 2024 onwards.

For more information on it, please contact capitalprogrammeoffice@nationaltransport.ie

Main document:

Support documents:

Download documents

2024 NTA Inflation Bulletin Card

File type
PDF
File size
- 251 KB

Inflation Bulletin - User Guide

File type
PDF
File size
- 223 KB

2024 NTA Inflation Full Report

File type
PDF
File size
- 2 MB
Schedule of Rates

The NTA has developed a Schedule of Rates (SoR) that can be used by Sponsoring Agencies in the development of cost estimates for projects where the NTA is the Approving Authority. The SoR has been developed to assist Sponsoring Agencies, however Sponsoring Agencies are not obligated to use the information in this Schedule (for example, where they have more reliable data sources, have undertaken market testing or have carried out first principle pricing).

Cost Management Guidelines

File type
PDF
File size
– 488 KB