Mr. Peter Walsh:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to appear before it to discuss TII’s role in delivering high-quality transport infrastructure, including projects under the NDP. I am joined by my colleague Ms Geraldine Fitzpatrick, TII’s acting director of capital programmes.

TII's role in delivering transport infrastructure is set out in the duties and functions assigned to TII through legislation. The National Roads Authority, NRA, operating as TII since 2015, was established under the Roads Act 1993. It is the general duty of TII to secure the provision of a safe and efficient network of national roads having regard to the needs of all users. Under the infrastructure guidelines, TII is the approving authority for national road projects and works in partnership with local authorities, which are the road authorities for all roads, including national roads. In 2015, the NRA was merged with the Railway Procurement Agency, RPA, and the Roads Act was amended to include the function to secure the provision of or to provide such metro and light rail infrastructure as may be determined by the Minister or, in the greater Dublin area, by the NTA. Under the infrastructure guidelines, TII is the sponsoring agency and the NTA is the approving authority for metro and light railway projects.

The NDP sets priorities for investment generally over a ten-year period and is therefore important in determining which transport projects TII can progress. While the NDP outlines longer-term objectives, TII's funding to deliver those objectives is provided on a year-by-year basis. The Minister may set conditions in respect of these annual allocations. Currently, TII is progressing a number of nationally significant projects which are set out in the NDP and the climate action plan. Details of these are included in the appendices attached to my statement. Annual grant allocations to TII have been suboptimal over the first half of the current NDP. This has limited the advancement of many of these projects. Funding constraints have resulted, most profoundly last year and this year, in cuts to asset renewal activity across the national road network to ensure that sufficient funds were available to advance the Government’s priority projects. New infrastructure requires a commitment to the consequent cost of protecting and renewing the asset or the asset value will diminish.

To deliver national roads projects, TII operates in close partnership with local authorities through a regional management structure and engages on a regular basis to monitor delivery programmes and track expenditure. TII funds 11 national roads offices located around the country which are populated by local authority staff. Once annual grant allocations for roads projects are notified to TII by the Department of Transport, TII provides project specific annual allocations to each local authority. The grant allocations are then paid to the local authorities over the course of the year to reimburse costs incurred in the delivery of those projects.

TII has established processes and procedures that are aligned with the infrastructure guidelines to oversee the delivery of national road and greenway projects, as outlined in our project management guidelines, project appraisal guidelines and design standards. The Government's infrastructure guidelines include three approval gates to be approved by the approving authority. These are: approval gate 1, which allows submission for planning approval; approval gate 2, which allows commencement of procurement; and approval gate 3, which allows for entering a construction contract. Having successfully achieved approval gate 1, the sponsoring agency is required to obtain statutory planning approval before a capital infrastructure project can proceed.

Projects with an estimated capital cost in excess of €200 million are subject to additional external assurances by the Department of Transport and by the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery, and Reform, and additional approvals from Government for approval gates 1 and 3 and from the Minister of Transport for approval gate 2.

Given TII’s experience of delivering significant transport infrastructure, we are appreciative of having been invited to contribute to the review by the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation of barriers to infrastructure delivery. In this regard, I commend the telescoped approval approach used for the Adare bypass project last year, which accelerated the start of construction. Other issues which impact efficient delivery of infrastructure are the absence of flexible multi-annual funding for delivery agencies and the consequent lack of a credible portfolio of projects to generate market confidence.

The advantages of a funded portfolio of projects may be overlooked. The positive impact of such an approach was evident during the delivery of Ireland’s interurban motorway network.

That concludes my opening statement. My colleague and I will endeavour to provide any further information that members of the committee may require.