2025-12-11

1. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation the status of the Government’s new infrastructure plan, Accelerating Infrastructure-Report and Action Plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [70883/25]

Dia duit ar maidin, a Aire. The Minister has outlined a new infrastructure plan and clearly we have a serious infrastructural deficit, which I have raised with him numerous times. This infrastructure deficit, particularly in the west of Ireland, is as a result of decades of neglect by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments. The Government has promised the earth and has delivered really nothing in terms of infrastructure for the west of Ireland. Why should anybody trust that these action plans will be any different?

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Farrell. Last week, the Government published the Accelerating Infrastructure Report and Action Plan. It is a comprehensive programme of actions designed to speed up the delivery of critical infrastructure across the State. This action plan responds to well-documented challenges of lengthy development timelines, fragmented processes and rising costs. These have all been identified as major barriers to achieving Ireland’s housing, energy, and climate objectives. The report is evidence-based. It has been built on the research and analysis of my Department, the views received during the public consultation and stakeholder engagement over the summer, and the expert input and advice from the members of the accelerating infrastructure task force. The plan sets out 30 targeted actions under four pillars, each addressing a key area of reform. The first pillar is legal reform. Reforms here aim to achieve a better balance towards the common good by addressing the incentives that drive a disproportionate reliance on the courts in planning and regulatory matters. While access to justice remains protected, the reforms will reduce incentives for excessive litigation, clarify rules on standing and remedies, and introduce fast-track pathways for nationally significant projects that are in the common good, through new legislation. The second pillar is regulatory simplification and reform. This means identifying where regulation leads to excessive process, rather than improved outcomes. It also means examining the structure of our regulatory environment, the practices applied by regulatory bodies and how they communicate with one another and with applicants. In practical terms, there is scope for improved outcomes by applying parallel processes, mandatory statutory timelines and measuring the performance of our regulatory bodies. The third pillar is co-ordination and delivery reform. This implements the reforms outlined in the programme for Government. It means my Department assumes a more central co-ordination role on the delivery of critical infrastructure, providing certainty to other Departments through multi-year funding commitments to underpin five-year sectoral plans and reforms to the infrastructure guidelines. Across government, it means driving and embedding a delivery-first culture, including a balance between risk and delivery that incorporates the potential cost of delay. The final pillar is public acceptance. I will set out greater detail on that.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. One of the things I noticed when I was reading the plan was that there are the 30 actions and it seems to me that every single one of them will be delivered in quarter two of 2027. This is a ten-year action plan and it seems that, from what I have read, 2026 to 2027 is when they are going to be delivered. That is obviously a two-year timeframe. My query is in relation to the ten-year period. Is it that they are the actions, that is what happens and then it is left until 2035, or what are the actions coming out of that? Will new action plans be agreed coming out of those or how exactly is that going to work?

The first aspect is on the actions which relate to reform and the majority of them fall in 2026. We have tried to front-load the interventions and actions we make so we can see the benefits of having legal reform, regulatory reform and simplification, better co-ordination delivery and improved public acceptance. They are the four areas identified. Most of those are to be progressed in 2026. We have already set out the national development plan review, which the Deputy will know about, and sectoral plans have been published in recent weeks setting out the trajectory of projects and of priorities across all areas of Government for the next number of years. The Deputy's point about five and ten years obviously relates to the overall capital investment. We have set out the €275 billion over ten years in the five-year sectoral plans. However, the reforms here are not about the investment. They are about how we change the practice and the delivery which is too slow. Doing that quickly is imperative to ensure the investment we have set aside yields improved delivery and that is the nature of what is set out.

I have to be very honest here. I want to this to work. The reality is that the way previous Governments have treated infrastructure has been abysmal and we see the direct results that has had. We see it particularly when storms hit or when people want to be able to build housing, providing housing or be able to attract jobs to areas. The state of our infrastructure has been horrific. I have a number of questions in relation to this. One of the things that makes me a bit nervous when it is Fianna Fáil, is whether there is much of an approach in terms of deregulation. We have seen what Fianna Fáil did previously and the impact that it had and I have to ask that question. I was also a bit concerned that it seemed to me that there was an awful lot of blame-shifting. Of course, we know there are serious issues but it did seem like a lot of blame-shifting from Government and other people. First and foremost, it is very clear that the reason we do not have the infrastructure is because of a lack of investment from Governments.

We have fronted up an investment and taking the investment profile over the next five years, it means we will be one of the biggest investors in infrastructure per capita in Europe and have about 5% GNI*. We have responded to that around the investment piece. However, there is a well-documented need and an evidence base to drive reform and infrastructure delivery and that is why there needs to be much more balance around regulation. We need to cut some rules, regulations and processes which are not adding value but are causing excessive delay. We also need to have a wider debate about the level of regulation around certain areas within the economy to ensure we have growth and delivery as a means to drive the strategic direction of the State. This is all about co-ordination and delivery of reform as well, and that is why the practical measures we have set out in this report will do what the Deputy said earlier in her remarks when she said we all want this to work. Ultimately, it is about how our energy systems, our transport infrastructure and our water infrastructure yields greater abundance across the economy so we can improve investment and increase the opportunities for job creation. That is what we have sought to do in this report.