A member of the Accelerating Infrastructure Taskforce has called for the delivery of infrastructure projects in Ireland to be prioritised.
Michele Connolly said infrastructure is "the critical enabler of long-term global economic growth".
The former partner and Head of Global Infrastructure at KPMG made the comments during an address at the Dublin Economics Workshop in Wexford.
"If we don't get the basic infrastructure in place, we won't have a functioning economy that is competitive, that is holding our own on an international scale and contributing to the funding of the rest of society."
She said in order to have a functioning economy, "you need a functioning basic infrastructure to drive that" and she said economic competitiveness is "synonymous with people's quality of life".
At the end of July, the annual World Competitiveness Rankings from the International Institute for Management Development placed Ireland as the most competitive country in the euro area and the seventh most competitive global economy in 2025.
However, Ireland's performance under basic infrastructure was ranked at 44th place out of 69 countries, down from 38th place last year.
"How on earth can we be accepting that Ireland is sitting down in 44th," Ms Connolly said.
"We need to be more radical. We need to do more. We need to cut more time off the different and the myriads of processes and procedures that are there."
Ms Connolly called for a more co-ordinated approach to the issue of delivering infrastructure projects.
"We need much better coordination across all different arms of infrastructure delivery, whether it's government departments, the myriads of different agencies, the private sector deliverers, the courts and the local authorities.
"We need them all singing off the same hymn sheet, because very often you find what's a priority project for one department or one agency, might be number five on the list of priorities for a different one."
In terms of the impact of judicial reviews on the delivery of infrastructure projects, Ms Connolly told the conference that she believes the common good "needs to take priority".
"Yes, you need consultation to bring the public along with you, but at some point, somebody's got to make a decision as to what's in the better interests of society at large."
"We have got to get the music and the mood out there to say the common good, that benefits society overall, needs to take priority," she said.
The chairperson of the Land Development Agency welcomed the recent Government announcement to reform the judicial review process, in order to "re-balance the rights of the public at large with the rights of individuals".
Cormac O’Rourke said in other jurisdictions where he has worked, the "common good takes precedence over an individual's rights, where it seems to be the opposite here".
He said in the middle of a housing crisis, he believes the common good has to have "a higher weight".
The LDA's plan to build almost 1,000 new homes on the site of the former Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum in Dublin, which received planning permission in May 2023, is currently the subject of a legal challenge.
Mr O’Rourke described it as "extremely frustrating" because he said the agency "should be delivering 1,000 homes there this year".
"It’s very frustrating to have a situation where the State entities with the capacity to review environmental issues are quite happy with the site and then an individual can relitigate those and hold it up."
"It’s the balance between the common good and the rights of the individual and in the midst of a housing crisis I think the common good has to have a higher weight," Mr O’Rourke added.
In her address to the Dublin Economics Workshop, the chairperson of the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council said the infrastructure challenges are "dragging down" Ireland’s competitiveness.
In particular, Frances Ruane said the cost of energy in Ireland presents "a real competitiveness challenge".
She said Irish energy costs are "56% higher than the EU average" and she said that means "effectively, we have the highest energy prices in Europe".
"So, it does put us at a competitiveness disadvantage," she added.
