Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 12 November 2025
Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery
Role of Private Sector Construction Industry in Delivering High-Quality National Infrastructure: Discussion
2:00 am
Patricia Stephenson (Social Democrats)
That is interesting. I am particularly interested in what I would call "critical infrastructure", such as water, electricity, roads, rail, transport in general and hospitals. Data centres are important and have an important role to play. We have 89 data centres in Ireland, 11 are under development and 30 have planning permission approved and will go ahead. While the data centre industry is here, there are also concerns that we focus too much on it in terms of overall prioritisation. The bigger thing is to do with our growing population and how to address those needs - we will not talk about housing today because I know we spoke about it last week - and all the other elements that come with a growing population and developing housing.
Obviously, BAM and the national children's hospital is an ongoing, big story. From a perspective of implementing Government contracts or applying for the tendering process, where is that competition challenge? It is my understanding that quite a high deposit has to be made by construction companies when applying for a public tender. Correct me if I am wrong. Is there anything like that?
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