Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

In April of this year, I announced Government had agreed a series of actions to accelerate the delivery of strategic infrastructure in Ireland. This work, led by my Department, will first identify and assess the barriers impeding the delivery of critical infrastructure across many sectors, including electricity, energy, transport and water. We will then publish an action plan which will target high-impact reform measures to address the barriers identified and speed up the development of this critical State infrastructure.

This work is being done because the availability of infrastructure in these sectors is particularly impeding our ability to provide for the needs of a growing population in housing and to improve the competitiveness of the economy.

At the moment, my Department is finalising the systematic, evidence-based review of the most impactful barriers to the timely development of infrastructure. This review is informed by research undertaken by officials in my Department, contributions provided by the accelerating infrastructure task force, evidence from direct engagement with key stakeholders, which remains ongoing, and the more than 170 contributions received via public consultation between 6 June and 4 July. This is in addition to input sought at the national economic dialogue on 16 June and a consultation event in Athlone on 18 June. I expect to receive an interim report from my officials on the most significant barriers to infrastructure development by the end of July. As I noted, this assessment of barriers is a critical input to the overall objective of this work programme, which is the development of an action plan to accelerate infrastructure provision. I expect to bring an ambitious action plan to Government in autumn, to publish it and move on to the work of implementing the agreed reforms.

In advance of this, I can share some of the key themes on barriers to infrastructure that have been expressed by stakeholders through the direct engagement and the public consultation. They are satisfied that infrastructure, once delivered, is of a high quality but the universal view is that the development of infrastructure in Ireland takes far too long. Stakeholders attribute the lengthy development cycles-----

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