ieExplains: Why does every infrastructure project in Ireland take so long?

Irish Examiner

6 days ago

Ahead of the 2024 general election, then-Taoiseach Simon Harris was adamant Ireland needed a new Government department, one solely dedicated to the delivery of infrastructure.
While Fianna Fáil was cooler on the idea, there was general agreement across the political spectrum: Ireland does not build things quickly enough. On Tuesday, there was confirmation of this in a new report that confirmed what everybody already knew.
While the department of infrastructure did not get established, public expenditure Minister Jack Chambers was given the explicit title of infrastructure when he assumed the role in January. In May, he announced a new Accelerating Infrastructure Taskforce.
The taskforce, chaired by the minister, was established to "oversee the department's programme of reform to unblock barriers and accelerate infrastructure delivery".
Why is it needed?
The need for a taskforce is down to a simple fact: building in Ireland takes too long.
Mr Chambers said on Tuesday "every element of the project life cycle has delayed things".
"What's been set out here is that for infrastructure projects, the timeline has doubled in 20 years," Mr Chambers said.
What does the report say?
Tuesday's report uses examples from the likes of Uisce Éireann, which says the lead-in time for a small wastewater treatment project in Ireland is seven-10 years, and ESB Networks, which said the development cycle for an electricity substation has reached seven years.
Major road projects can now have a development cycle of up to 15 years, it says, and these timelines have more than doubled compared to the development cycles typical just 20 years ago.
This matters, because longer project lifecycles are costing more, and impeding the ability to provide adequate housing. It also delays the achievement of climate and environmental goals.
The report also raises questions about the ability of the Irish construction sector to meet the challenges of infrastructure. It says the construction sector employed 236,800 people in 2007.
At the beginning of this year, an estimated 178,000 people were directly employed in the sector, considerably fewer than 2007.
The report says given limited labour availability, the capacity of the construction industry to expand to meet all of the investment needs in the economy must be carefully considered.
The report says the key issues with Ireland's slow delivery are: a lack of public information which magnifies opposition, regulatory burden, risk aversion, insufficient co-ordination on approvals, slow processes, and procurement challenges.
Do legal challenges play a part?
According to the stakeholders, yes.
The words "judicial review" appear in the review a total of 50 teams, with Mr Chambers saying he was concerned these were "too often being used as a mechanism and a tactic to obstruct and delay, and this distorts the intended purpose of judicial review from a remedy of last resort to a tactical tool to delay infrastructure development and clog up our courts".
But put to him this view paints those who take legal cases as "bogeymen" in the face of a Government inability to deliver infrastructure, Mr Chambers said everything needed to change internally within how the State regulates and oversees projects.
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