Latest news with #infrastructure investment
BBC News
4 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
National Development Plan: Can Ireland deliver on €112bn schemes?
It is a mark of the Republic of Ireland's recent economic performance that listeners to a popular politics podcast had to be reassured this week they will not face a "hair shirt" budget in the an economic context "hair shirt" tends to mean punitive austerity policies which make citizens uncomfortable and was in the wake of Ireland's pre-budget report which pointed to a 6.5% increase in core public spending, a tax cut for hospitality businesses and a €112bn (£98bn) package of infrastructure most European finance ministers those numbers would be closer to a silk shirt than a hair podcasters perhaps felt they had to give a reassurance as the budget will not deliver quite as much to household finances as it has in recent years. Big cash injection for housing For example a €250 universal energy credit introduced during the worst of the cost of living crisis will not be the run up to October's budget is expected to be dominated by a drip feed of announcements on the specific projects which will flow from that huge infrastructure fund, known as the National Development government is able to spend this money because Ireland's long-held policy of low corporation tax has come good in spectacular fashion, delivering a huge windfall from US firms who pay their global taxes in the is money which desperately needs to be spent because Ireland's basic infrastructure is example, a chronic failure to build enough housing is contributing to economic and social problems, such as tensions around infrastructure backlog has built up because public and private investment collapsed during Ireland's years of financial crisis and firms across construction and development failed during that period and the workforce shrank as the economy recovered rapidly and the population grew there wasn't the capacity to provide the investment which was National Development Plan (NDP) is an attempt to remedy this as quickly as the biggest allocation is for housing which will get €36bn between 2026 and 2030. The next biggest chunk is for transport, which gets €22bn. Of that, €2bn is supposed to be used to start work on a long-planned underground Metro rail line from Dublin city centre to the airport and northern experience of the Dublin Metro can help explain some of the scepticism around the Metro has been planned since 2000 but not a centimetre of track has been current planning application has been under consideration for more than 1,000 days and the man leading the project has conceded it is likely to face more legal is also the continuing saga of the new National Children's Hospital in Dublin which has missed 15 completion dates and is almost €1bn over government has attempted to show people that the state does have the capacity to section of the NDP is a list of recent projects across education, health, roads and broadband which have been built without much section lists the reforms to procurement and planning which should reduce delays, such as changes to judicial review there is a more fundamental issue: who will do the actual construction work required to turn the €112bn into houses, roads and sewers?The most recent figures suggest there are around 177,000 active construction workers in Ireland, the highest number in a an analysis by the Department for Further and Higher Education estimates that another 80,000 workers will have to be found to meet the government's targets on housing, let alone other those additional workers at a time when the Irish economy is at close to full employment will be a challenge in itself.
RNZ News
15-07-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Three southern councils still plan to team up to deliver water services
Central Otago, Clutha and Gore District councils have reaffirmed their support for the partnership and agreed to join it in principle. Photo: RNZ Three southern councils still plan to team up to deliver water services despite an expected fourth backing out last week. Councils have to submit water service delivery plans to the Department of Internal Affairs by early September. Four southern councils have worked towards a jointly owned, council-controlled organisation - the Southern Water Done Well model, but last week, the Waitaki District Council voted to exit the partnership and manage its services in-house for at least two years. It left the remaining councils trying to work out if the model - which aims to share expertise, save costs and improve service delivery by working together - would work with fewer councils onboard. Within days of Waitaki's decision, Central Otago and Clutha district councils agreed to join in principle. On Monday, the Gore District Council followed suit, voting to join the three-council model if the updated figures stack up. Gore District Mayor Ben Bell said the community could not afford the estimated $500 million bill to invest in projected infrastructure over the next 30 years. "In this instance, bigger is better in terms of economies of scale and financial sustainability," Bell said. "By working with like-minded councils, we can provide a water services delivery model that balances regional efficiency with local accountability." The future of water service delivery was intergenerational, he said. Central Otago District Mayor and Southern Water Done Well chair, Tamah Alley, said that councils knew they were stronger together and could deliver better long-term outcomes for their communities. It was a testament to the significant amount of work done to ensure councillors and communities had what they needed to make informed decisions, she said. "There's still work to be done, though, to understand what a group of three councils looks like and get a compliant Water Services Delivery Plan submitted by the deadline," she said. The plans need to show how council will deliver water services that meet new quality and infrastructure standards and are financially sustainable long term. They will then be assessed with councils possibly facing intervention if they do not meet the brief. Local Government Minister Simon Watts has made it clear to the southern councils in a letter that there would be no time extension to submit a plan.
