Mr. Cormac O'Rourke:

I am honoured to have been nominated for a second term as chairperson of Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross. I thank the Chairman and committee members for the invitation this morning.

I grew up in Dalkey, County Dublin, and was educated in Scoil Lorcáin and Coláiste Eoin.Is Gaelscoileanna iad an dá scoil sin. Mar sin, más mian le baill an choiste ceisteanna a chur as Gaeilge, tá mé sásta iarracht a dhéanamh freagra a thabhairt orthu as Gaeilge.I studied engineering and business in UCD, graduating in 1980 with a BE and in 1985 with a Master's degree. I joined the ESB from college. I worked for five years as an engineer and received training in Switzerland and the UK. I was then promoted to run the section which performed economic analysis and efficiency studies in power stations. In 1987, I moved to KBC Bank NV's Irish subsidiary. I worked initially in corporate banking and international aircraft finance. In the early 1990s I was appointed as head of KBC's project finance operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The team had 30 project financiers split between Dublin and Brussels and was responsible for several billion euro worth of project lending for infrastructure, energy and telecommunications. I worked on a large number of European road, tunnel and bridge projects. I was also involved in rail projects in the UK, Australia and the Benelux countries. The funding of these projects involved a myriad of financing structures, including public private partnerships, PPPs.

In 2000, I returned to ESB International as investment director and worked on major projects in Northern Ireland, Spain and Poland, where ESB was the investor. I am fortunate to have worked for a major semi-State, which has a disciplined and highly sophisticated approach to developing major infrastructure projects both in Ireland and abroad. In 2003, I moved to Goodbody Corporate Finance. Since then, I have advised many semi-State and private companies on mergers and acquisition in energy, infrastructure and health care, as well strategy and fundraising.

When I was appointed as chairperson of the National Roads Authority, NRA, and the Railway Procurement Agency, RPA, in 2013, the most difficult challenge the organisations faced was the merger of the two entities to become TII. TII is now a single organisation in a single location with good cross-fertilisation of ideas between people with diverse engineering backgrounds. During the merger and afterwards, Luas cross city, Gort to Tuam, the N11 extension, Newlands Cross and other major and minor projects were completed. The staff of TII are to be commended on keeping their focus on delivering all these projects, while bedding in a new organisation.

At the time the merger was first mooted, the estimated savings were €3 million per annum. The actual outturn was approximately €10 million per annum. The largest savings have been in personnel numbers and premises. In terms of personnel, the savings have probably gone too far, particularly in terms of being able to undertake long-term planning. This is a matter on which we are engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

TII's mission is to provide high quality transport infrastructure and services, delivering a better quality of life and supporting economic growth. It is responsible for the Luas in Dublin, as well as 5,306 km of national roads. The Luas carries over 100,000 passengers per day, almost a third of the number of passengers carried by Dublin Bus. The national road network transports people, goods and services between the country's major cities, towns, airports and ports. It is fair to say that TII's activities impact on almost every citizen in the State.

The board of TII oversees an authority which directly employs approximately 260 people. TII also funds 11 national roads offices, NROs, with 200 local authority technical staff. The NROs' management of projects and local knowledge are invaluable. Larger PPP projects are managed directly by TII.

Since 2000, TII has moved from a developer of roads and light rail to become a major operations manager. Most operations are outsourced. In total, 1,250 km of high-speed motorways, motorway service areas and tunnels are operated by a combination of PPP concessionaires and specialist operators. TII manages all PPP procurement directly and outsources commercial operations such as the M50 eFlow, Dublin Port tunnel and Luas services. Overall, some 2,000 people are employed on the operations side, with over 1,000 employed on the construction of major road and rail projects last year. I have included a diagram with this presentation, which I hope gives an appreciation of the scale of TII's activities.

Safety is a key concern for all who work for TII. The board is acutely aware that building, operating and maintaining roads and light rail are inherently dangerous activities. Monitoring safety on sites and on roads and light rail operations is a key part of what we do.

Last year had the lowest number of road deaths since records began. While this is welcome, we must strive to do better. TII monitors accidents on the national road network using road traffic collision data collected by An Garda Síochána and validated by the Road Safety Authority, RSA. We try to prioritise improvements in areas where collisions are most prevalent. Further information is provided in the appendix to the written statement on our progress with safety schemes.

Luas safety is a key issue and a combination of education campaigns and red-light infringement cameras have improved our safety statistics. Luas safety statistics compare well internationally, but again we must do even better.

Congestion is clearly a growing problem. While I know that it is no comfort to those stuck in traffic jams or feeling squashed on the Luas, it is worth pointing out that congestion is a symptom of economic success. However, I believe that as a country we have consistently underestimated growth and have failed to plan for success. In the 20 years since the 1996 census, the population in Ireland rose by 1.1 million people. The national planning framework expects an additional 1 million people by 2040, essentially in 22 years. A recent ESRI report, however, indicated the population could increase by up to 1.1 million people by 2030, ten years before the national planning framework. TII is a looking again at the national transport model to see if we need to update it for these latest projections.

TII has conducted a detailed analysis of the chronic underspend on road maintenance. The results are stark. The annual spend on asset renewal of the national primary routes has been well short of the required investment level of €140 million per annum.

Continued under-investment in pavement renewals for a period of 20 years will result in extensive repairs costing over €600 million per annum. This is more than twice as expensive in real terms and in no way represents value for money. I am grateful for the commitment from the Department that this funding gap will be phased out by 2020.

In 2016, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council noted that depreciation on public infrastructure was approximately 2.1% - the same level as spending. A benign interpretation is that Ireland is standing still. In 2017, the World Economic Forum ranked Ireland as 38th in the world for infrastructure. Our National Competitiveness Council's analysis the same year stated that Ireland was spending less than the EU average on infrastructure. This means that as a country, we are going backwards compared with peer countries. When we consider the rapid growth in population, which is not the case in many European countries, Ireland is going backwards quite quickly compared with our peers. In its 2014 report on advanced economies, the IMF showed that spending an extra 1% of GDP on infrastructure leads to an immediate 0.4% increase in GDP with a permanent increase in GDP of 1.5% four years later. This information is not new. These results are almost identical to those produced by Professor John FitzGerald in the ESRI's medium-term review back in 2003. The ten-year national development plan published last Friday is very welcome and TII looks forward to playing its part in building out those projects we are tasked with.

A word of caution regarding the delivery of future infrastructure is probably appropriate. The board of TII is very concerned at the small number of major schemes that it has ready to go for planning or construction. Funding has not been provided during the recession to develop such schemes. The committee will be aware that a typical timeline for a major project is eight to 13 years from start to finish - assuming that there are no legal or planning challenges. Unfortunately, these challenges happen all too often in Ireland. TII is in the business of long-term planning and I welcome the indications that TII will be allocated funding to put more projects through planning. The cost of planning permission is a small fraction of the cost of the project but it provides optionality value. Once planning permission is in place for a significant number of projects, they can be scheduled as and when money becomes available. Without planning in place, we and others may not be in a position to take up available funding. TII is actually delighted that this issue has been addressed comprehensively in the national development plan.

Whether a person needs to travel from Sandyford to the Dublin Institute of Technology at Grangegorman or between Limerick and Galway, our job in TII is to provide a safe and efficient user experience. We invest money on behalf of the taxpayer to enable access to jobs and for goods and services in the most efficient manner possible right throughout the country. I acknowledge and pay tribute to the leadership of Michael Nolan, CEO of TII, and his very strong management team. Theirs is a difficult and demanding job at the best of times and they do their job with commitment, dedication and good grace. On behalf of my fellow board members and TII, I can assure the committee that we will continue to work closely with the Oireachtas, the Department, the National Transport Authority and our local authority partners in meeting the transportation infrastructure needs of Ireland.