Big progress made in removing obstacles to critical projects, infrastructure tsar says

The businessman tasked with improving infrastructure delivery by the Government has been “blown away” by the progress made. Seán O’Driscoll, chair of the Accelerating Infrastructure Taskforce, said he would have been “in despair” at the lack of basic infrastructure delivery two years ago. The former Glen Dimplex chief executive was appointed by the Department of Public Expenditure last year to find ways to address bottlenecks and speed up infrastructure projects. He provided an ambitious plan to the Government last November focusing on legal and regulatory reforms and ways of better securing public acceptance for large projects. His report identified 30 key actions and 138 sub-actions that the taskforce believed would expedite infrastructure delivery. READ MOREOn Wednesday, O’Driscoll told the Construction Industry Federation’s (CIF) annual conference that 77 per cent of these targets had been implemented and the rest would be by the first quarter of next year. He said all sections of the Planning and Development Act 2024, and a related amendment act, would be law by October 1st. The Critical Infrastructure Act, which became law in June, is already facilitating nine projects – three related to transport, three to water and three to energy. These include the Greater Dublin Drainage Scheme, a Cork light rail system, the North-South electricity interconnector and the Dublin MetroLink. O’Driscoll identified the judicial review process as a key obstacle to housing delivery. He told the conference that before the publication of the taskforce’s report, this system was like an ATM that did not require a pin number for the legal profession. However, he said the number of judicial reviews had fallen since a cap was put on the legal fees available for such actions in May. [ ‘Visible construction’ for MetroLink expected in Dublin by end of yearOpens in new window ]He said the Government is working to tackle delays related to the environmental impact assessment (EIA) “industry”. He cited figures showing Ireland had 257 EIAs in 2022, compared to 218 in Germany and eight in Denmark. “There is a correlation between delivering infrastructure and excessive environmental legislation,” he said.Every Government department and State agency has been asked to issue its own risk appetite assessment by the end of October as part of efforts to speed up the building of more homes and infrastructure. O’Driscoll described Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers as a “brave politician” who put his name to the policy of accelerating infrastructure despite it being politically unpopular in some quarters. He also praised the civil servants seeking to drive through change as “some of the finest people I have worked with”. The Land Development Agency’s director of asset management Enda McGuane told the conference that Ireland has become a leader in Europe in building cost-rental housing from scratch. While places like Vienna had a model for such building for centuries, he said: “We’re the only ones who have made a success of it starting from now.” [ Leinster residents twice as likely to complain about alleged hosepipe ban breachesOpens in new window ]Úisce Eireann’s infrastructure delivery director Maria O’Dwyer said work on the Greater Dublin Drainage project has begun and the Shannon water supply project, which will see water piped from the river Shannon to serve greater Dublin and midland counties, is with An Coimisiún Pleanála. She said Dublin’s water supply is in a “knife-edge” situation and that “if we are serious about housing” the water supply project “has to happen”.MetroLink interim programme director Michael Flynn told the conference he is confident the first train will run within 10 years. He said the project took a “massive step forward” last week when the Government approved it proceeding to the detailed tender stage. Physical work on the project is to begin early next year, with Flynn estimating that one in 20 construction workers in the State will be employed on MetroLink at the height of construction.