Tóibín: “Infrastructural development needs root and branch reform. Too much regulation and red tape means projects are taking decades to deliver.”
Peadar Tóibín says the report on major infrastructure projects highlights key issues that need to be addressed to speed up delivery.
“Regulation is like a pendulum. We had far too little regulation 30 years ago, now there is too much. Planning applications now have to be written for different state agencies, and these state agencies are not working with each other in sequence.”
He said: “Projects are taking decades to deliver. The Navan to Dublin Rail line project was announced in 1994 – the very earliest that the rail line will be built is 2036. The people who started work when it was announced will be retired when it is built. The same rail line was built in 1860 with picks and shovels in three years.
“Uisce Éireann has stated in the Infrastructure Committee that it will take until 2050 before it has the gaps filled in the water infrastructure, which are holding back housing building. Housing projects all over the country are stalled as a result.
“Midleton has been inundated with massive floods. Life has been very close to being lost. Fourteen years after flood defences were promised the planning application for flood defences has still not been submitted to Cork County Council. Enniscorthy is waiting 25 years.
“Metro North was first announced 26 years ago. €460 million has been spent on it without a shovel put in the ground. The National Children’s Hospital is a monument to projects grinding to a halt and ballooning in cost.
He said: “Ireland has one of the slowest planning, permitting, licensing, tendering, procurement and judicial review systems in the EU. All these are tools within the government’s remit. All should be reformed to speed up delivery.
“Infrastructural development needs root and branch reform in Ireland. The infrastructure deficit is damaging people’s lives.”
Deputy Toíbín is one of the 14 members of the Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery.
It delivered its Report on Matters Relating to Transport, Energy and Housing Delivery today. Recommendations included legal system reform, streamlining of the planning system and local authority co-operation.
