A new dedicated Infrastructure Division along with a taskforce to support it aims to address the slow pace at which long-term infrastructure is delivered, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Jack Chambers has said.
The taskforce, which will meet monthly and be chaired by the minister, will draw on expertise from Uisce Éireann, Eirgird and the ESB to identify barriers that slow the development of long-term infrastructure.
By July, it will have a report on the blockages it has identified and its findings will feed into efforts to speed up infrastructure delivery.
Speaking ahead of this morning's meeting of the Cabinet, where he updated ministers on the move, Mr Chambers said: "Our real focus is on driving reform and also providing additional levels of capital allocations to drive infrastructure delivery across the economy."
He said stakeholder feedback indicated there were "too many barriers" leading to infrastructure being delivered at a "slow pace", adding that this would "harm economic growth for the future if we don't fix it."
"We need to ensure that infrastructure delivery can be accelerated as quickly as possible. That's why we're establishing a task force of external experts, so we're there to provide real oversight so that central government can actually drive progress in this area.
"We know that a lot of this infrastructure is simply taking too long and I think it will also help enable increased supply of housing, where the infrastructure that enables housing to be built can be accelerated and that will allow for opportunities to increase the supply of housing as well."
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he believed the creation of the Infrastructure Division in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Deliver and Reform could have a massive impact in terms of delivering major infrastructure projects for the State.
"This is potentially a game changer in terms of the mindset within the public service... it can take too long for infrastructure projects to get delivered, quite frankly. And that's not just in Ireland, it's in Britain and across Europe."
The new Infrastructure Division will work in tandem with the Department of Housing’s new acceleration office.
Sinn Féin has said the taskforce "seems like old wine in new bottles".
'Back to the future'
The party's Public Expenditure and Reform spokesperson, Mairéad Farrell, said Mr Chambers' plans to bring a memo to the Cabinet "appears to be driven by optics more than anything else".
"A previous group was set up in 2018 to speed up and improve how we deliver infrastructure in this State," she said.
Ms Farrell added the Construction Sector Group "produced some excellent reports, unfortunately, they were married to government inaction. This now seems like a case of back to the future".
"This business of bringing memos to Cabinet appears to be driven by optics more than anything else," she said.
Competitiveness
Also at this morning's Cabinet meeting, Minister for Enterprise Tourism and Employment Peter Burke will bring proposals to enhance Ireland’s competitiveness.
This will comprise of the development of an Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity over the next 12 weeks. It will focus on industrial policy, reducing costs and regulation on businesses, digital regulation and reform, energy development, as well as research and development of international trade.
Mr Burke will also propose a number of short-term measures to help with competitiveness, including work on international free trade agreements and implementing CETA, the Canadian-EU trade agreement.
That would remove barriers to trade such as tariffs between the two blocs.
A review of overseas marketing of Ireland and of trade missions will also be undertaken.
Climate Action
Meanwhile, Minister for Climate, Environment and Energy Darragh O'Brien will seek Government approval to publish the Climate Action Plan for 2025.
The plan outlines carbon reduction targets to be met across different sectors, the progress made in reductions in each sector in recent years and how Ireland’s 2030 and 2050 targets can be met.
The minister will also have a plan for Cabinet approval proposing new areas for offshore wind development around the country.
That comes as the Government plans in this area suffered a significant blow, with the confirmation yesterday that a planned wind farm, Sceirde Rocks windfarm, off Carna will not now go ahead.
Even though the planning application for the windfarm, which has been worked up over a number of years was only submitted in January, the company behind it, Corio Generation, has said they have refocused their development plans.
Both the Taoiseach and Mr O’Brien expressed disappointment at the news.
The Sceirde Rocks project was one of an initial six offshore windfarms that was in development.
