Share this article:
The Construction Industry Federation (CIF) has welcomed the publication of the Government’s Accelerate Infrastructure Action Plan, describing it as an important milestone in tackling Ireland’s infrastructure deficit.
However, CIF has stressed the urgent need for detailed project timelines and implementation plans to ensure the strategy delivers on its ambition.
The Action Plan, published by the Government’s Infrastructure Taskforce today, sets out actions to accelerate delivery of critical infrastructure such as water, energy, and transport to support housing, foreign direct investment, climate action, and economic growth.
Andrew Brownlee, CEO of the CIF, said: “We welcome the Taskforce’s recommendations and its intent to accelerate the delivery of large infrastructure projects to remove bottlenecks around housing, water supply and treatment, energy, hospitals, and other vital infrastructure. We are in the midst of a housing and infrastructure emergency, which severely undermines Ireland’s competitiveness. Indeed, the IMD world competitiveness rankings place Ireland as first in Europe and 7th in the world overall, yet 44th out of 69 for basic infrastructure. These actions are necessary to respond to that emergency and overcome the barriers to the delivery of infrastructure already identified in their initial report in July, and require the Government to address bottlenecks and inefficiencies around funding and prioritisation of projects, regulation, risk aversion, judicial reviews, planning and consents processes, public procurement, attracting talent and public acceptance.
“The proposed legislation to accelerate critical infrastructure and provide for emergency powers is essential to fast-track strategic projects through planning and limit judicial reviews, in the interests of the common good.
“But while the funding commitments of €275.4 billion announced in July were significant to drive what Government has called an “infrastructure revolution”, the largest capital investment plan in our history must be matched with a clear roadmap of projects and timelines. Construction companies need certainty to scale up operations and deliver. Without granular detail, investment planning becomes impossible.
“The recent postponement of projects like the Dart Plus Southwest project demonstrates the unpredictability in the delivery of public infrastructure in Ireland. This was done despite the project having planning and being in line with transport-led infrastructure to support new homes. Furthermore, joint Irish and international consortia were formed and were involved in the pre-qualification process, requiring a significant outlay of costs, time, and resources. Delays like this make public procurement in Ireland unattractive and costly. Implementation of the action plan will be critical to removing this type of unpredictability.
“The promised NDP sectoral plans are intended to set out the granular detail on what, when and how infrastructure projects will be delivered. While water, energy and transport plans have been published in the last week, other infrastructure investment pipelines must be clarified, and more detail added to provide a coordinated, stable project pipeline, and an effective project tracker to avoid serious bottlenecks.
“Currently, 62% of Ireland’s leading contractors are scaling up operations abroad, where project pipelines are clear and predictable. CIF warns this trend will continue unless the Government provides specific plans and start dates for projects in the short to medium term.
“The funding is there. Now we need to see the list of projects and their timelines to give the industry the certainty it needs, and then we need to focus on delivery in line with these deadlines.”