Bureaucracy, indecisiveness, and institutional inertia is acting as a hidden tax on progress, a Minister of State has warned.
In a speech to Department of Finance officials, Robert Troy stated that the country needs to be ruthless in delivering infrastructure and services.
"During Covid, we saw what urgency, clarity, and unity of purpose can achieve," he said.
"As a public service, we respond best to crisis - but the real challenge is to show that same determination and speed in times of plenty."
The Minister of State said that the civil service has grown by 50% in the last decade.
But he asked if citizens feel they have received a comparable growth in services and their quality of life.
Mr Troy called for a shift in thinking and urged politicians and public servants to look beyond the cost of doing something, and instead fully confront the often-greater cost of not doing it.
"If we consistently frame our choices through the lens of opportunity cost, measuring what we lose by delaying, we will make better, and crucially, braver decisions," he said.
Meanwhile, Tánaiste Simon Harris has said that emergency legislation can be used to ensure critical infrastructure is delivered.
Speaking at the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting, he said this may be required for the supply of water and energy to homes and sites across the country.
Mr Harris pointed out that emergency legislation had been passed in recent years for Brexit.
He added that it could be done again for crucial national projects in order to cut through red tape and bureaucracy.
