I thank the Minister for coming to the House. Before I ask Senator Davitt to outline the proposal in the motion, I welcome former Senator and Cathaoirleach, Mr. Pat Moylan, to the Seanad Éireann. Pat was elected in the 1997 election to the 21st Seanad on the agricultural panel. He was also nominated by the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and served with distinction as the Cathaoirleach of this House from 2007 to 2011. He was preceded by Rory Kiely and succeeded by Paddy Burke. I remember his time as Cathaoirleach. Mr. Moylan would remember my time as a Seanadóir, which started under his stewardship. It was a great honour to serve in the Seanad under Pat and we thank him for coming to visit us in Seanad Éireann today. I hope he enjoys his return to Leinster House and it does not bring back any traumatic experiences of trying to keep law and order among the Seanadóirí. He also served a long time on Offaly County Council, from 1974 to 2004, and did a small bit of hurling back in the day. Again, I thank him for being here in Seanad Éireann.

I move:

That Seanad Éireann:

notes:

- the publication of the Government’s Accelerating Infrastructure Report and Action Plan;

- that major strategic infrastructure projects are now taking significantly longer to plan and deliver than in previous decades, with delivery timelines in some sectors having doubled;

- the evidence within the report that delays in the delivery of critical infrastructure including water, energy and transport are acting as constraints on housing delivery, balanced regional development, economic competitiveness and climate transition;

- the report’s identification of legal, regulatory and coordination processes as contributing to extended project timelines;

- the report’s emphasis on the need for improved coordination between State agencies involved in infrastructure delivery;

recognises:

- that Ireland is investing unprecedented levels of capital funding in infrastructure through the new National Development Plan published last year;

- that funding alone will not resolve delivery challenges without systemic reform of planning, legal, regulatory and procurement processes;

- the importance of maintaining robust environmental standards and access to justice while ensuring that nationally significant infrastructure can be delivered in a timely manner;

welcomes:

- the clear acknowledgement within the action plan that delays in infrastructure delivery have become a structural constraint on housing supply, balanced regional development and economic growth;

- the Government’s commitment to streamlining decision-making and reducing duplication across regulatory systems, in order to address avoidable delays arising from sequential consenting processes;

- the action plan’s focus on improving coordination across State agencies, strengthening delivery capacity and improving public engagement processes to support the timely rollout of enabling infrastructure;

- the proposal to enhance strategic planning and prioritisation of nationally significant projects;

- the commitment to improving public engagement and transparency in order to build public confidence in infrastructure delivery;

- the intention to leverage innovation, digitalisation and improved procurement practices to accelerate project timelines and translate investment into delivery;

- the scale of investment committed by the State under the National Development Plan to support and drive the acceleration of infrastructure across the country;

calls on the Government to:

- prioritise the full and timely implementation of the Accelerating Infrastructure Action Plan;

- bring forward the necessary legislative measures to support more efficient delivery of critical infrastructure projects;

- improve coordination between State bodies, utilities and local authorities to support infrastructure-led housing delivery;

- invest in delivery capacity across the planning, legal and construction systems; and

- report regularly to the Houses of the Oireachtas on progress in implementing the action plan and reducing infrastructure delivery timelines.

This accelerated infrastructure report is a fine and badly needed report to streamline assist the Minister and the various Departments in the large infrastructure projects we have taken account of in the programme for Government. The Minister has a list of 30 different actions as part of his plan. Again, there is no point in crossing over the whole report and plan but I will discuss some of the most important actions.

One is to reform judicial review. As we know, the courts have delayed quite a lot of heavy infrastructure plans and projects and have slowed them by numerous years. I am sure the Minister might go into some detail with respect to some of the projects that have been so badly waylaid. This plan is going to streamline a lot of that awkwardness that was within the system, particularly for major infrastructure plans, as is indicated in this report.

There are a few other things that caught my eye. Enabling developer-led infrastructure is one, especially where we have had blockages with ESB, sewerage and general basics that are needed to have a site up and running. Some of these have been bogged down physically and legally. Again, this plan is targeting that particular section to progress.

The reformative procurement process is another part of the 30 actions of the plan. That is a very important part. Some of the regulation can onerous in relation to time. Particularly, the time to make decisions in some of these processes is certainly outweighing the cost benefits because they are taking so long that a lot of the costs have gone up in the meantime. We have seen that and it has really cost the State on several occasions instead of saving the State money, as it has happened.

They are the ones that really caught my eye when I went through the general headings. Again, one I would know a good bit about is the aim to increase the construction sector capacity and productivity. We are looking at different methods, different training and enabling a different set of workers who maybe heretofore have not been involved in the industry. That is another that will certainly be a help.

I thank the Cathaoirleach for the time. I welcome the Minister to the House. He is one of the most active Ministers that we have with his busy portfolio, so I thank him very much.

I second the motion. I wish to share my time with Senator Kennelly.

Is that agreed? Agreed.

As Fine Gael spokesperson on housing here in the Seanad, I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on this motion on infrastructure. I have no doubt that housing is the single biggest crisis facing our State at the moment. However, the housing crisis is largely caused by an infrastructure crisis. In this State we were quite successful and timely in the way that we rolled out our broadband infrastructure right across the State. However, as my colleague mentioned, in some parts of the country we are still largely lacking when it comes to our electricity infrastructure, our water infrastructure and especially our wastewater infrastructure in many parts of both urban and rural Ireland.

As the Minister and Cathaoirleach will know, in this State we have 545 rural villages that are currently completely unserviced with wastewater infrastructure. That is 545 rural Irish villages that have been effectively closed to development since 2011. In my local area, a number of villages which have scope for development, such as Clarinbridge, Craughwell, Ardrahan, Kilcolgan, Ballinderreen, Laban, Kilchreest, Peterswell, Shanaglish and Nogra, have all been without the granting of a single planning application for a housing development since 2011 solely due to the fact that those settlements lack wastewater infrastructure.

As the Minister will know, just this week the Minister for housing brought to Cabinet a very positive new plan around developer-led wastewater infrastructure. This plan allows for a developer to develop up to 40 houses in an unserviced village or an unserviced part of an existing town with wastewater treatment facilities, built and funded by the developer and completely at the cost to the developer but built to a standard specified by Uisce Éireann. On completion of the project, this wastewater infrastructure will be taken in hand and under the ownership of Uisce Éireann. I have no doubt this will be transformative for hundreds of small, unserviced villages right across Ireland and that this measure alone will allow thousands of Irish young people to come back, buy homes and live in their native villages in their native communities.

However, it is key that local authorities buy into this. We must impose upon the planning sections of our local authorities plans to facilitate these developments and developer-led wastewater infrastructure into unserviced settlements. We will have achieved nothing if the planning permission cannot be granted after the Bill is enacted.

I welcome the Minister. I also welcome Mr. Pat Moylan, who, like me, is a former councillor. Having spent many years as a county councillor in Kerry, I know all about infrastructure and the Accelerating Infrastructure Report and Action Plan. Over the past number of years, we have not seen anything developing in rural Ireland.

I wholeheartedly support this motion, which has been brought forward by Fianna Fáil. I call on the Minister to clearly outline how the Accelerating Infrastructure Report and Action Plan will be implemented in a way that directly addresses rural depopulation, especially in Kerry and similar counties. The Government’s report acknowledges that delays in delivery of critical infrastructure, water, wastewater, which I am going to really hone in on, energy transport and grid capacity are acting as structural constraints in the context of housing delivery and balanced regional development. In rural Kerry, the latter is not a policy theory; it is a lived reality. Villages in my area and all over Kerry, such as Astee, Duagh, Ballyduff, Abbeydorney, Kilflynn and Moyvane, will never see meaningful housing developments until infrastructure catches up. Young couples want to build, and families want to stay, but without serviced sites, wastewater upgrades, road improvements and co-ordinated planning between agencies, they cannot do so. When houses are not built, families leave. When families leave, schools, communities, and our churches struggle. Let us build them all back up fairly fast.

It does not stop there. Recently, on RTÉ, Marty Morrissey highlighted the growing crisis of rural depopulation and its impact on the GAA. His reports showed clearly how demographic decline in rural Ireland is reaching crisis levels when it comes to participation in some areas. In particular, he highlighted south Kerry, which is a large area in which there are only 85 kids listed in primary schools for this year. Valentia Young Islanders GAA is a small community club that has struggled to field teams at times and that has had to consider amalgamation as a result of emigration and dwindling population. Dromid Pearses GAA is based on the Iveragh Peninsula, which is another area with very low underage numbers where adaptation and collaboration have become necessary just to keep teams going. This is the home club of our current Kerry senior manager, Jack O'Connor.

Recently, I and a number of colleagues, including Senator Scahill, spoke with the president of the GAA, whose term is winding down. He said that his biggest fear is for rural clubs and rural communities. My promise to him that evening was to call on Uisce Éireann to invest in its infrastructure in order to allow for the building of homes in these rural areas. Marty Morrissey’s report did not attempt to list every club in Kerry that has been affected, because the problem is larger than any single parish. His focus was on the trend. That trend is unmistakable. Behind every struggling underage team is a simple fact: there are fewer young families living locally. This is where infrastructure and housing connect directly to community survival. If infrastructure delays prevent housing delivery in rural villages, then population decline will continue. If population declines, schools amalgamate, clubs have to merge, and communities are weakened.

I welcome the Government's acknowledgement in the action plan that infrastructure delays are now a structural constraint in relation to housing supply and balanced regional development. We welcome the commitment to streamline decision-making, reduce the duplication in consenting processes, which is crazy, strengthen co-ordination between State agencies and enhance delivery capacity. For rural Kerry, this must translate into visible progress. Infrastructure-led housing delivery must mean that villages like those I mentioned - Astee, Duagh, Ballyduff, Abbeydorney, Kilflynn and Moyvane - are actively prioritised. I want regional balance; I do not want the cities or the towns getting any bigger. I want the rural areas to survive as well.

Funding alone is not enough. As Senator Davitt mentioned, reform of the planning, legal, regulatory and procurement systems is essential if we are to see projects delivered in a timely way. If we fail to act decisively, we will continue to watch the slow erosion of rural life, with fewer houses built, fewer children in our classrooms and fewer jerseys on the pitches. I call on the Government to fully implement the Accelerating Infrastructure Report and Action Plan as a matter of urgency, to bring forward the necessary legislative reforms to improve co-ordination between State bodies and local authorities, to invest in and deliver capacity and to report regularly to this House on the measurable progress made. Rural Ireland does not lack spirit; it lacks enabling infrastructure.

I welcome the CEO of Galway Chamber, Ms Karen Ronan, who is a guest of Senator Collins. I also welcome to the Public Gallery members of Templeogue Community Men’s Shed who are guests of Deputy Brophy and Senators Boyhan and Fitzpatrick.

I welcome the publication of the Government's Accelerating Infrastructure Report and Action Plan. It is important that the Government has finally acknowledged what communities across this country have known for years, namely that the delays in delivering water, energy and transport infrastructure are structural constraints on housing, economic growth and balanced regional development. While that acknowledgement is welcome, it is long overdue.

The motion recognises that Ireland is investing unprecedented levels of capital funding under the national development plan. Even though funding is important, however, we have to be honest and say that the problem up to now has not solely been about money. We have had plans, strategies and announcements for years. What is missing is delivery on the ground, particularly outside Dublin.

The action plan refers to improving co-ordination between State agencies. Again, that sounds very positive, but co-ordination cannot simply mean more inter-agency meetings or revised governance charts; it must mean clear lines of accountability. When a wastewater plant is delayed, when a grid connection stalls or when transport projects slip for years, who is responsible and what are the consequences? The motion also welcomes streamlining decision-making and reducing duplication in consenting processes. All of this is good. We should absolutely remove inefficiencies and end unnecessary sequencing of applications, but we must be careful not to frame this solely as a planning problem. Many delays stem from poor upfront project preparation, under-resourced agencies and a lack of delivery capacity in the system in the context of planning, engineering and construction. If we are serious about acceleration, we must invest not just in projects but also in the people, namely planners, engineers, the legal expertise and project managers needed by local authorities and State bodies. Without that capacity, legislative reform will not deliver the results we need. Most importantly, if balanced regional development is to mean anything, it must shape the order in which projects are prioritised.

In counties like Limerick and across the mid-west, housing is being held back because enabling infrastructure is not in place. I have raised in the House a few times how in Newcastle West, the county town of Limerick, no more houses can be built because the infrastructure is just not there at the treatment plant. I believe 2031 is the next year in which we will get a connection to the treatment plant, which is absolute madness for the only tier 2 town in the county. Towns are zoned in the context of growth but they lack wastewater capacity. Businesses are ready to expand but cannot secure energy connections. Communities are promised transport upgrades, but these remain years away. The M20 is a clear example. We have been waiting over 20 years for the Limerick to Cork motorway, with accidents occurring every year on the existing road. We say that one accident is one too many or that one fatality is one too many. The number of accidents on the M20 is disgraceful. We need to get that project moving fast.

While I welcome the recognition that infrastructure delays are constraining regional development, I question whether this plan goes far enough in guaranteeing that acceleration will be felt in the regions first and not last.

What do we need? We need infrastructure-led housing delivery where investment in water and energy is sequenced ahead of demand. We need transparent region-by-region reporting to the Oireachtas in order that we can track where projects are progressing and where they are stalling. We need genuine empowerment of our local authorities, with resources and powers to drive delivery rather than waiting for sign-off. We need a clear commitment that balanced regional development is not just referenced in our policy documents; it has to be embedded in capital prioritisation.

Communities will not judge this plan on the basis of the language it contains. They will judge it on whether homes are built, whether businesses can connect to the grid and whether young people can see a future in their own communities. Acceleration must not simply mean faster delivery in already developed areas; it must mean unlocking the potential of regions that have waited too long.

As my colleagues across the floor said, this is not about accelerating development in cities that are already over-expanded; it is about looking at new areas where there is potential to expand outside the cities and allow people to live where they want to live. If this action plan can achieve that, it will be worthwhile, but that will require not just reform on paper, it will require political will, regional prioritisation, and accountability in practice.

I welcome the Minister, who is here to discuss what is probably one of most important reports ever to come before the House. I am not too sure exactly how we got to where we are in relation to the delays and the complications relating to the delivery of critical infrastructure. As the saying goes, however, we are where we are. We have to address this issue if we are going to move forward. I welcome the report.

Judicial review, JR, has been mentioned. Maybe I will start with that. When we look at the current JR process, we say it is definitely not fit for purpose. We ask if it serves the common good or the interests of individuals and communities. Is it the letter of the law or the spirit of the law that is being applied? The answer to all of these questions is probably in the negative in the sense that the JR process suits interest groups rather than the common good of the people. The letter as opposed to the spirit of the law is being applied.

I am concerned about the ability of planners to make decisions and use conditioning as a part of the process of granting permission. They just seem to be afraid, and they protect one another. With some of the offshore wind projects, the requests for further information are more extensive than the original planning application. There is something fundamentally wrong with that entire process. I will give the Minister a number of examples. It took more than 30 years for the Arklow wastewater treatment plant in Wicklow top be delivered. This was because of an individual who had the resources to drag the matter through every court in this country and in the EU. When we got out of that and Irish Water was established and came up with a new site, the new application for the Arklow wastewater treatment plant was done at the very same time as that relating to the greater Dublin drainage scheme. The Arklow wastewater treatment plant is now open and functioning, and the greater Dublin drainage scheme is still stuck in the process. Again, this goes back to the whole JR process in terms of picking a specific issue and focusing on it in order to delay progress on something that I believe was in the interests of the common good.

Another aspect that the committee on EU scrutiny is dealing with is the transposition of EU regulations into Irish law, and the complete and utter lack of oversight in relation to that. There are options in every one of those regulations. Nobody in this House or the Lower House gets sight of any of the options. Sometimes, we go to extremes in relation to what we are looking at. Some developments in this country need to go to four, five or six State agencies in order to get approval. That is absolutely bonkers. I know of a private investment where €2 billion has been spent and where the entity involved is waiting for an EPA licence. The project is built and is ready to be occupied, yet it is just sitting there. What happens if approval is not given? Will the €2 billion investment be gone? The fundamentals of what is happening here have to be unwound. I do not know whether it goes back to the time of the crash when we brought in regulation to slow everything down and stop things from happening. Thankfully, we are now beginning to address it. That is why I believe this is probably the most critical piece of information because we cannot solve the problems that everybody has spoken about here tonight unless the infrastructure is there, regardless of whether it is water, wastewater, energy or transport infrastructure.

I thank the Minister for the effort he has put into this. It is critical for the common good of every citizen that we get the balance right in order that we get the critical infrastructure that will deliver houses across the entire country as opposed to just in urban areas. We are talking about infrastructure; we are not talking about regional development or urban development. The problems are the same across the country.

I hope Senator Casey was not saying that we cannot talk about balanced regional development-----

No.

-----because that is where I am about to go. I welcome Fianna Fáil's motion. It is very timely. We are all fully aware of the constraints that obtain in respect of housing delivery, balanced regional development, economic competitiveness and climate transitioning, but how we experience these and see evidence of them on the ground is completely different. First and foremost, we are very close to opening the first section of the N5, a €450 million investment in Roscommon that will allow people to access Mayo and the north west. This is the sort of project that we want to see happen. This is the sort of investment we need in respect of infrastructure in order that we might address the imbalance in regional development.

There are also the very simple things that my colleagues mentioned when they went through the geography of various parts of Kerry and Galway. Individual villages were mentioned. In many cases, we have already allocated money to address some of the infrastructure issues that exist. One of the points related to focusing on co-ordinating State agencies. I have a situation in west Roscommon whereby councillors say that Irish Water will have to reinstate a road to a certain standard but where the company is saying that this standard is above the standard it would like to invest in and that it can do it in a different way. Ultimately, we are looking at an 18-month period during which there have been more than 60 outages in the village of Cloonfad. I do not care whose problem it is; I just want it to be resolved. As public representatives, we are fighting to get the money that is needed allocated. That is what it comes down to in brass tacks.

My colleague Senator Kennelly has been talking for years about football teams and how our clubs are dying because there are no young people in communities. I have spoken here about digital hubs and remote working and how we need to enhance and promote these an awful lot more. We have invested the money in the national broadband plan. The infrastructure is there. While a lot of people felt we were overpaying for it, I am of the view that it was the right time to do it. We probably saved ourselves money in the long run, particularly when you consider what it would cost to try to do the project now. This is the sort of massive project that we need to deliver in order to address the regional imbalance.

This afternoon, I attended the Car Rental Council of Ireland's presentation in Buswells. Reference was made to how the European Commission's proposed regulations for 2028 could mandate that all rental cars would have to be electric. I do not need to look it up because I already know that none of our airports currently has the grid capacity to allow for the charging of electric rental cars. In fact, when I asked a question in this regard at the presentation, I was told that Dublin Airport is probably 50% behind the capacity it would need to meet the demands of converting its fleet to EVs. That is before we take into account the two new data centres going up in the local area and a potential metro north. We and our partners in Europe are creating policy that is dictating the demands that we are going to have. We need to address those demands before we meet them.

That is why I really welcome the publication of the Government's accelerated infrastructure report. The Minister has a Dublin focus but he is also very focused on his roots in the west and further out in the region. There are smaller things we can do to open up pockets of housing capacity, that can open up job opportunities and address the regional imbalance. On the climate transition, rather than creating whole new interconnectors now, if we increase the capacities of a lot of our substations we will open up the opportunities to develop. As Senator Murphy said, if we create small-scale water treatment plants, we will open the opportunities to develop the houses there. There are simple solutions. In my home town of Castlerea, Longford Springs with an additional pump would have capacity to distribute a lot more water. Simple things can open opportunities and that is what the Minister’s plan is trying to do. I welcome the Minister's presence tonight and I welcome the motion.

I thank the Minister for being in the House this evening. I, too, support the motion and welcome the publication of the accelerating infrastructure report and action plan. Coming from rural east Galway, which the Minister knows having visited Portumna many times, I stand in solidarity with my colleague Senator Murphy when it comes to the wastewater treatment plant. The largest town in our county, which is outside the constituency of Galway East, is Ballinasloe and after that it is Tuam and beyond that everything is sub-4,000 people. Rural wastewater treatment plants is critical infrastructure that needs to be developed across all our communities. The sign-off on that is really important. Senator Kennelly spoke about the GAA, Marty Morrissey’s report and all that. That is exactly where we will be going. As a good sporting Minister who supports a lot of our GAA and football, he knows the worst thing that could happen in Portumna is we would have to amalgamate with the likes of Killimor. I mean that in the best sense but if we did, the game would be over completely.

That is right.

That is what is happening. Mullagh had to amalgamate with Kiltormer. Tynagh and Abbey-Duniry amalgamated. That is the trend that is developing. It would be remiss of those of us from rural communities to not speak to that point. Tribalism and community is part and parcel of it. The Minister’s work on this is really welcome. We do not need it to the level they need it in the cities or larger towns. We need the projects of 20 to 40 houses and for there to be the capacity to carry a developer-led project which can come into the likes of Killimor or Portumna. They can connect up 40 to 60 houses until such time as there is the opportunity and capacity in Uisce Éireann to arrive on that site. That is what we are saying. I know I am not alone in that; it is what is experienced right across. We have good infrastructure in our roads, schools and health system – those are still there – but the minute there is an issue with one part of this fabric, we end up with an ageing population that needs a different dynamic of support.

I will speak hypothetically for a moment. I will not give the name of anything. I will share a story with the Minister which is probably a classic example of what he or others might experience. Imagine a leading town in the west, perhaps in Galway, where a builder-developer came along some years ago and engaged with a semi-State organisation. Part of that was that a design and plan could be put together and the whole planning process and development gone through. There would be a two-stage process whereby the site would be made shovel-ready before the houses were put on site and there would be urban regeneration on an entire area that had previously been green fields. Imagine that the project gets caught in judicial review and instead of getting permission to allow work for seven years the developer gets caught in the planning process, which takes over five years, and Covid lands and everything else, but it has cost €7.5 million to develop the site. This is in the city and involves approximately 470 units – I will not say what sort of units. Then the semi-State organisation comes along and says the developer only has a year and a half left. The developer tries to make progress and gets to a point where planning permission has been and they are ready to get shovels in the ground. When they ask the semi-State organisation if they can progress to stage 2 of the development, a new contract is required and there is a new set of fees. The developer has already paid the semi-State a holding fee to be able to do this and now they face having to pay a new fee for development. It is renegotiated and the semi-State says, “No”. That semi-State organisation has a reputation, not just in Galway. I cannot attempt to mention names or anything because it will go straight into arbitration and it will tie up those 484 units for a year or two years. That is the only site in Galway that has planning permission for development. The Minister said it here himself about developer-led infrastructure. It is the developer's own money, along with other units, to support the development of this project. Look at climate – it will be where people do not have to drive. There is a student population we do not have accommodation for. That developer is doing everything to tick the box. The Minister has it all addressed here because I know he must have heard similar stories based on how he has laid out his plans. I looked through his statement and actions 9, 15, 8, 20, 22 and 28 would address every single one of these. If this goes to arbitration we will be another two years before we can come out of it and then the planning permission would be running short.

My story is no different from anyone else’s. Unfortunately, we are chasing a runaway car and it is really hard to catch up.

I thank the Minister. It is obviously a timely debate. I was at the infrastructure committee earlier where we were talking about procurement. I will spend some time talking about that challenge of doing procurement well. Our procurement and tendering process has so many gaps that are leading to big scandals like the national children’s hospital where repetitive change orders are being put in place. I would love to know what we can do to strengthen this process. There is also the question of quality procurement. We have a culture of lowest cost, where the contract goes out to tender and we have the lowest cost coming back from the contractors who are bidding for it. We are not taking quality into account, and quality in procurement is so important for things like disability and environment and to get the best possible outcome for infrastructure no matter what the area. Issues have been raised around the bureaucratic and onerous nature of our public procurement processes, exclusionary qualifying criteria, poorly defined project briefs, unrealistic budgets – we hear a lot of feedback on that from contractors – a lack of understanding of complexity of the construction stage on the part of the clients, in this case the client being the Government, and a lack of collaboration on the whole chain of the process. The risk is transferred to the people who are bidding on the contract. I would love to know what we could do to strengthen that. Perhaps it could be the creation of an expert unit responsible for procurement and project management.

The Minister’s Department is responsible for infrastructure and the budgets and design but when some of that is outsourced to other Departments do they have the in-house expertise? The case of CHI and the national children’s hospital is the one that comes into my head and I know we have spoken about it at length. Does CHI have the in-house expertise? Is it dealing with the procurement piece correctly? How can we bridge the gap to make sure it is?

I am very concerned that instead of trying to implement a robust and reformed system to improve oversight and implementation in the infrastructure sector we are putting in more processes that will make mistakes more quickly.

I agree with the idea of streamlining. I agree it is good but I worry that streamlining and simplification is often used as a synonym for things like deregulation.

I am concerned that we are actually going to be making planning decisions more difficult and risking other arbitration decisions further down the line.

The whole piece around planning and the planning process is obviously incredibly important. We had an era where a lot of planners left Ireland during the crash. Am I saying something funny, Senator Murphy?

No.

I thought the Senator was laughing at me. Maybe he was laughing at something else.

The planning element is important, but there is an issue with the number and resourcing of planners in local authorities as well as with the backlog in cases that planners are addressing. We have had complex planning legislation over in the past few years and planners say it is very difficult to keep up with the regulation. With the frameworks around planning continuing to change, it makes their jobs even more difficult. This leads to mistakes in planning decisions, which can be taken for judicial review. The more mistakes we have when planning decisions are made, the more recourse people have to take judicial reviews.

We have major issues in vital infrastructure, such as electricity and water supply. Data centres use over 20% of Ireland's electricity supply. In a few years' time, that will be 30%. That is concerning because Irish consumers are going to face massive increases in electricity prices as a consequence of that. We are going to have to choose between powering AI in the near future and powering our homes. We need to consider the planning around that.

Obviously, Uisce Éireann is linked to the water issue. When we had Uisce Éireann before the infrastructure committee a few months ago - maybe even before the summer - it put much of the responsibility for the lack of funding back on the Department. There is a lack of clarity around who is to blame - "blame" is perhaps the wrong word - and where the responsibility lies. Is it that Uisce Éireann is not doing the tasks quickly enough, is it that it is not prioritising areas, or is that the funding is not there for it to increase supply in the most critical areas?

We heard from the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, last week that the construction industry needed 80,000 new workers to meet demand. The Irish construction industry is 30% less productive than our European neighbours'. I would love to hear from the Minister on what the Government is considering as regards increasing productivity in that space by utilising the construction workers we have. I heard from the Construction Industry Federation today at the infrastructure committee that nearly 70% of contractors did not do public work. That is concerning when we consider the multiple billions of euro we are about to spend on public infrastructure. Do we have the people there to make it and how can we make our market more competitive to bring in construction workers? Can we do things like joint ventures between indigenous Irish construction bodies and larger international construction bodies so that we build up our national expertise within local construction businesses and companies that may not have some of that? Some of this is expert knowledge of digging with certain machinery and equipment. Could we explore joint ventures as a way of building up our domestic expertise?

I welcome the Minister, and I welcome the publication of the accelerating infrastructure action plan, with its focus on delivering infrastructure across electricity, water and transport. The identification of those four strategic pillars and 30 targeted actions shows the scale of the challenge facing us when it comes to ensuring that essential infrastructure keeps pace with population growth and development. This plan is therefore very welcome and a necessary step.

Across the country, we are seeing the pressures that arise when housing, population growth and economic development move faster than the infrastructure needed to support them. In my county of Louth, these challenges are becoming increasingly evident. We are experiencing unprecedented levels of housing development across Drogheda, mid-Louth and north Louth. Our new housing is very welcome and badly needed, but the reality on the ground is that the infrastructure required to support these communities is often lagging far behind. People are moving into these beautiful new homes in brand new estates without the roads, schools, childcare facilities and public transport that allow communities to function and thrive.

Key strategic projects, such as the port access northern cross route on the north side of Drogheda, remain essential if we are to manage the growing traffic numbers and support the continued development of the town. Likewise, the delivery of a second railway station for the northern Drogheda environs is critical if we are serious about improving transport connectivity for one of the fastest growing urban areas in the country.

Water and wastewater infrastructure is creating real constraints on development in other parts of the county. In Haynestown near Dundalk, Uisce Éireann has been involved in infrastructure planning around Reynoldstown village in Haggardstown. Planning permission was granted last year for a range of new services that residents in the area had been calling for many years now. These include a new supermarket, a large medical centre, a chemist, a restaurant and a substantial childcare facility. This development was intended to serve a growing population and community of more than 2,000 people while also helping to relieve some of the pressure on nearby Blackrock, which has experienced significant population growth in recent years. Despite planning permission being granted last year, however, progress on these projects has ground to a halt because the necessary wastewater infrastructure is not in place. Late last year, it was confirmed to the planning authority that the Blackrock wastewater treatment plant did not have the capacity to cater for additional proposed developments.

That capacity constraint has already had real consequences. It has led to refusals for housing projects, including an 80-home development and a separate plan for 91 houses in the area. The area is also in dire need of a new secondary school for its growing population.

Even in my own part of the county, we are seeing the strain on infrastructure in other parts. In Termonfeckin in Clogher Head, residents are experiencing serious water pressure issues because the existing water pipes are no longer adequate to serve the level of development already there, never mind what is coming down the line. Those pipes need to be replaced. In the meantime, the existing households are seeing their water pressure being affected as new homes continue to be added to the network.

These are just practical, everyday examples of what happens when infrastructure does not keep pace with development. If we are serious about delivering housing at the scale required, infrastructure must be delivered alongside it at the same pace, not years after people have already moved into their new communities.

For counties like Louth and countless others across the country, the success of the accelerating infrastructure action plan will ultimately be measured not by the strategies or pillars set out on paper, but by whether we see projects being delivered on the ground in the timeframe that our communities desperately need. Our towns and villages right across the country are growing rapidly, and that growth must be matched by the infrastructure that allows communities to live, work and raise their families with the services they so richly deserve.

I welcome the Minister here today.

I will start by talking about Cork, which is the fastest growing city in Ireland, with a population that will increase by 50% by 2040. This will mean the need for the creation of at least 75,000 more jobs in Cork. There are over 600,000 people living in Cork, and two thirds of those are living within 25 km of the city centre. We are an education city. We have University College Cork, Munster Technological University and many other educational institutions, with a big student population in the city.

The delivery of housing is key, as is the energy and water infrastructure around it. There are many projects that need to be delivered when it comes to infrastructure for Cork. These include the M20 Cork to Limerick motorway, which we have been waiting on for 20 years; the M28; the N25 Carrigtohill to Midleton upgrade; the R624 Cobh road; and the northern distributor road. It is fair to say that congestion in places like the N40 and N28, and in areas such as Bishopstown in the morning, make them like car parks. We need to have proper infrastructure for the city.

The events centre, which has been promised for over a decade now, needs to be delivered for the city. Other projects include the new city library and, of course, the light rail system, which is under way and very welcome. However, the Labour Party has called for shovels in the ground by 2030. BusConnects has to be delivered upon, as does the Cork Airport project. Cork Airport's connectivity to the city is shocking. You would be hard pressed to get a bus, and the light rail system should also be going there.

In Cork, we say we are the real capital and the rebel city, but it is described as the second city and needs to be treated as such. We are not really seeing that in terms of investment outside of Dublin and balanced regional development. Cork is a beacon of the south and Munster more widely and it needs to be supported. Cork City Council is delivering on housing and needs to be supported in continuing to do that. I support comments from Deputy Séamus McGrath today regarding transport. He has called for an office to be set up, with Transport Infrastructure Ireland, the National Transport Authority, NTA, Bus Éireann and Irish Rail in one hub to deal with Cork and ensure we deliver on the promised infrastructure that is needed.

When I was a city councillor, I suggested there should be a board seat on the NTA for the CEO of Cork City Council. It is vital that Cork be prioritised.

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has said there is a deficit of 80,000 construction workers in Ireland. We have seen a figure indicating our construction sector productivity is 30% below the EU average. Addressing this absolutely needs to be prioritised for those who live, work and study in Cork, but also the rest of the country. It also needs to be prioritised for employers. Construction sector productivity is key to attracting investment and new businesses in Cork and also across the rest of the country.

On the accelerating infrastructure plan, the Labour Party has been clear. It has welcomed it cautiously. We need to see it delivered on. It will be judged on its actual delivery. We welcome the streamlining of approvals for critical infrastructure projects and the fact that greater co-ordination is to be demanded across the public service on the delivery of infrastructure. We also welcome the duty of State bodies to co-operate in making land available and accessible for projects. The commitment to clear timelines is also positive. However, accountability will be key to success. The Labour Party will be holding the Government to account on the performance indicators.

The Labour Party has outlined concerns regarding the over-zealous focus on judicial reviews. Legal reforms may be a necessary part of a comprehensive process like that envisaged but the Government seems to view limits to judicial reviews as a panacea. Access to effective justice underpins our whole democracy. Judicial reviews should not be treated as a bogeyman, as they have been by the Government. The Law Society noted recently that the number of judicial reviews decreased by 25% in 2025. Where is the evidence for the approach the Government is taking?

The Labour Party has welcomed the plan, and the Opposition and Government need to work together to ensure it is delivered on in the best way for the country. We welcome the creation of a duty on State bodies to co-operate and the streamlining of approvals for critical infrastructure. The objective could be met by giving the LDA and other State agencies the power to compel State bodies to transfer land.

We need to see the national planning statement for critical infrastructure urgently because the current regulatory system, as it applies to infrastructure, is not fit for purpose. Ireland is a wealthy country at the minute and there is money in the coffers. It is important that we do not waste what has accrued from what has to an extent been a boom over the past ten years. We need to ensure there is something to show for it for the long-term development of the country. Infrastructure will be critical to this.

I thank all the Members of the House for the opportunity to update them on the Government's plans to accelerate the delivery of infrastructure and to outline my Department's role in the management and delivery of capital projects and programmes. I appreciate all the contributions made by Senators on both the Government and Opposition sides on the collective wish to see us do things much quicker and cut through many of the obstacles that have permeated the system for too long. I will speak to some of what we are going to try to do as we look ahead. The choices we now take on infrastructure delivery will determine our economic competitiveness, climate resilience and the quality of life enjoyed by communities across the country.

As set out in the motion, the Government is acutely aware of the challenges with infrastructure gaps and the need to prioritise investment in major housing, water, energy and transport projects. We have made considerable efforts to deliver a step change in funding by setting out €275 billion for public capital investment from now until 2035 and our focus on implementing reform is to address the barriers to delivery.

As committed to in the programme for Government, published in January last year, we made five key commitments for infrastructure delivery, which have been delivered. The Cabinet committee on infrastructure was established in April 2025. We have reviewed the national development plan and prioritised capital investment in our medium-term fiscal plan. Sectoral plans have now been set out in terms of the projects and programmes to be prioritised by each Department over the next five years. The National Development Finance Agency's remit has been broadened around expert advice for infrastructure delivery, and the dedicated infrastructure division of my Department has been established, with a new deputy secretary general appointed in December.

In April 2025, I established the infrastructure division and convened the accelerating infrastructure task force with a single mandate: to identify the key barriers to infrastructure delivery and develop comprehensive reforms and actions to overcome them. The task force brought together experts and stakeholders from across the infrastructure delivery system with the aim of tackling the most significant barriers to infrastructure delivery. I chair the task force, which continues to meet monthly and ensures the work and recommendations of the group are evidence-based, practical, targeted and, crucially, capable of delivering measurable improvements in infrastructure timelines and outcomes.

We published our reform proposals in December. The report highlights five key objectives: accelerate the delivery of critical infrastructure; accelerate wider infrastructure delivery by simplifying and streamlining the regulatory and consenting processes for infrastructure in general, in respect of which many Senators have spoken about the overly cumbersome nature of the process; reduce delays caused by judicial reviews and the threat of judicial reviews, regulatory complexity and fragmented approvals; enhance co-ordination across government, utilities and local authorities; and build public and political support for infrastructure projects. We have 30 targeted actions, as has been mentioned.

The report is a statement of intent and the Government is committed to implementing it in full. It is evidence based and has clear deadlines, which are concentrated on 2026. Clear responsibility for each action has been set, with accountability attached.

One of the four pillars of consideration is legal reform. This pillar is designed to tackle the excessive complexity in the regulatory and infrastructure development environment at source. The legal reforms are specific and carefully considered to improve infrastructure delivery and drive delivery across the board. These reforms will work within the balance of existing EU legislation to reduce disproportionate delays in the infrastructure development process and will create legal frameworks for critical and emergency infrastructure, ensuring projects of high strategic importance can be prioritised by State bodies and delivered quickly.

Some of the key actions under the pillar include measures to reform the judicial review process; enacting a critical infrastructure Bill, the heads of which were approved by the Government this week; and statutory designation for critical projects, allowing them to be expedited through existing processes. We will introduce emergency powers legislation to enable accelerated delivery in urgent situations, consistent with EU law. Environmental assessment reforms will be introduced to align with EU norms and reduce disproportionate delays.

The second pillar is regulatory reform. Our current regulatory landscape is fragmented and overly complex. It is composed of numerous agencies, consents, assessments and licences and it has developed over decades. Each of the processes may have an important function but we need to focus on simplifying and standardising processes so approvals run in parallel where possible, with clearly stated expectations and statutory timelines for decisions. The goal is to align procedures across agencies, remove duplication and create processes that have predictable timelines and outcomes for public infrastructure projects and also, critically, private sector investment, which has been referred to by colleagues by way of multiple examples.

Some of the key actions under the second pillar include the establishment of a regulatory simplification unit to proactively identify opportunities to simplify and streamline regulatory processes. The legislation underpinning regulatory processes will be rationalised. National planning statements to create legally binding guidance for planning authorities will be published. This will create consistency, transparency and accountability in decision-making on infrastructure projects. We will change how we approach infrastructure in the context of EU law. The challenges in this regard have been mentioned this evening. The proposed approach includes flexibility in transposing EU law, advocating for common-law considerations in new EU legislation, actively identifying upcoming EU legislation that may impact infrastructure delivery, and also removing some of the excessive gold-plating of recent years that is affecting delivery.

The third focus is co-ordination in delivery. To deliver on the commitments in the national development plan and sectoral investment plans, Ireland must be able to deliver at scale year after year. The funding has been committed and now delivery is the priority.

This can only be achieved with a strong whole of government approach and construction sector. We have already taken a number of steps to increase infrastructure co-ordination and delivery.

The fourth action is on public acceptance and civic engagement. Infrastructure must earn societal support. We will accelerate infrastructure delivery by reducing land access delays and building public trust and accountability. We will also improve public engagement processes to communicate the real-world value of infrastructure. Some of the key actions under this pillar include ensuring co-operation between State bodies and making land available for infrastructure projects, mobilising political and civil society support for infrastructure projects and embedding a benefits realisation framework to bring out the positives of infrastructure in terms of emissions reduced, travel hours saved and jobs enabled so that communities can see what projects deliver and what inaction costs.

All of these actions mean we are reforming how we deliver. We are not simply adjusting one lever. Rather, we are changing the system entirely. We will reform our legal and regulatory processes, how we co-ordinate and deliver across the public service and how we engage with the public, because only a whole of government effort will convert record investment into outcomes at pace. Regulation is vital, yet the way it operates today is fragmented, often sequential and overly conservative in its application of EU law which creates avoidable delay and uncertainty. This carries a real cost, namely higher energy prices and emissions and the threat of judicial review that drives further risk aversion.

We will fix this by simplifying legislation, standardising processes, aligning statutory timelines and driving rebalancing, proportionality and parallel processing across consents so that we drive efficiency and prevent delays. Reforming regulation is not enough; we also need to reform how Government and the public service works. This means clear risk appetite statements approved by Governments so that sponsors can commence well scoped early works, run concurrent steps and forward-order critical components where the public benefit justifies it. We need to encourage our public service to take risks in the interests of delivery. That is a clear commitment and clear programme of action. We will remove duplication, confront risk aversion and build a delivery first culture, while safeguarding the environment.

The expected combined impact of these actions will be faster approvals and reduced litigation, significantly shorter delivery timelines, improved co-ordination and resource allocation, greater public trust and reduced opposition and, ultimately, increased infrastructure output to support our housing, climate and economic goals. Since the formation of the Government, we have taken clear strides to move at pace to address Ireland's infrastructure needs and secure our future economically and socially.

Since December, we have continued to move at pace and ensure the actions are delivered. Since the action plan publication, my Department and I have taken clear ownership in driving delivery and embodying the leadership that is required to deliver this step change. As I said, we have delivered the new infrastructure division, with confirmed timelines and responsibilities for actions that are being committed and agree to. We have established a regulatory simplification unit and team and commenced the first stages of performance. The legislative function has been stood up, with specialist officials appointed with required legal backgrounds. The critical infrastructure heads will advance over the coming weeks.

Actions to simplify the infrastructure guidelines will cut months in the overall consideration, which again re-balances the level of bureaucracy in post-infrastructure delivery. We have expanded the National Development Finance Agency to build central expertise and try to improve the delivery process, in particular in the early stages. Infrastructure delivery and monitoring structures are bedding into place, including the strategic monitoring of implementation functions reporting to Government, ensuring accountability, risk appetite reviews and public facing communications on project tracking and delivery.

As a Government, we are committed to driving the delivery of these 30 actions and want to advance most of these across 2026. There is a wider ambition in the Chamber and across the Oireachtas to put reform first. Too often, we have discussions on how much more we should allocate to projects. Ultimately, it is about reforming our systems and public service, putting a delivery culture first and increasing the risk appetite to back public servants to get things done. We have a generational opportunity to shape Ireland's future and build growth and prosperity into the 2030s and 2040s. Now is the time to get infrastructure delivery right by reforming the system outside us and the culture within us. The people of Ireland deserve no less and this Government will deliver.

Is the motion agreed? Agreed.

When is it proposed to sit again?

Tomorrow at 9.30 a.m.