Mr. Tom Leahy:

I thank the committee. Engineers are fundamentally problem-solvers. We are here to solve problems, not create them. It is our strong belief that Ireland now has the correct structures to deliver key infrastructure, notably with the establishment of a range of commercial semi-State companies, etc. We will list them on the board. The freedom of these organisations to deliver has been hindered by barriers. We will talk a bit about those. In terms of reform, it is our strong belief that the Government is responsible for setting out policy and that it should then hand over to the State companies and the local authorities to deliver the policy objectives of the Government. In doing that, we are concentrating in this initial presentation on housing but we have carried out a range of studies in broad areas of infrastructure. We are happy to cover those during the questions and answers session.

The first recommendation we highlight is the need for policy alignment across Departments, not just within them. All State bodies need strategic plans to 2050. Before we get lost in terminology, a strategic plan will get people absolutely nowhere. It will point them in the right direction. If after this meeting members' intention is to head off to Galway for a meeting there, the strategic plan will only say to go to Heuston Station and that is probably where they will start their journey to Galway. That is what a strategic plan is. What is really missing are what we call sectoral master plans and project delivery plans. They outline exactly the infrastructure that each semi-State body and local authority is meant to deliver. In the example of the journey to Galway, these plans will say how many trains, carriages and seats will be needed and what infrastructure, maintenance and so on is needed. Most importantly, it will tell us the arrival time. That is what is needed. That is, in one sense, the missing gap.

These plans need to be accompanied by national planning statements, which we are suggesting need to be formally adopted by Ministers and signed into law by statutory instrument. This is something rather new; I have not heard of it before. Following approval in Dáil Éireann, they can only be altered by subsequent Dáil approval. We could probably christen it as the housing, infrastructure essential-in-the-public-interest statutory instrument of 2025. I will tell the committee later on why a statutory instrument is so important.

These plans will then need to cascade in line with the national planning framework and feed into national, regional and local plans. To return to that example I gave, one does not want to arrive in Athlone and be told locally that a little bit of change had been made and in order to get to Galway, one has to go to Sligo first and then be brought by bus to Galway.

God knows what time you will arrive. This is where the alignment from top to bottom is absolutely essential. We have already discussed the issue of multi-annual funding. These large projects are delivered over five to seven years and sometimes over periods longer than that. You cannot build them if you are getting an allocation each year. Multi-annual funding is absolutely essential. There should be explicit Government support for the necessary infrastructure, particularly the removal of policy-target conflicts. In the question and answer session, I will give a couple of good examples of these policy-target conflicts.

We welcome the reform that has already taken place, particularly the infrastructure guidelines reducing the number of gates from four to three, but there are still too many approval gates at agency level. The committee has already heard me say that the major companies should be allowed to get on with it. They have the ability, the governance and the boards and they report directly to Ministers. The only approval that should be required at agency level is approval from the appointed board. This would save time and money. In our opinion, it would be a game-changer.