The Government is to put in place reforms to tackle regulatory barriers in the Irish economy which are impeding growth and development, Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers has said.
The Minister will this week seek Cabinet approval to establish a new infrastructure unit in his department. This was agreed as part of the programme for government as an alternative to the proposal put forward by Simon Harris as Fine Gael leader during the general election campaign that there should be a new government department to oversee infrastructure development.
Mr Chambers said “balanced regulation” was needed when it came to the delivery of infrastructure.
Under the Minister’s new plans to go to Cabinet sectoral experts who will identify blockages and barriers to infrastructure delivery and accelerate big capital projects are to be drafted into a new infrastructure taskforce. These personnel are likely to be drawn from organisations such as the ESB, Irish Water and EirGrid and Transport Infrastructure Ireland.
The group will report back by July, and the findings will be included in an action plan prioritising a small number of significant changes which will be aimed at accelerating infrastructure delivery.
“In my regular engagement with employers and those looking to invest in Ireland the issue of infrastructure is a common concern,” the Minister said on Sunday. “It is imperative we take decisive action now to address this. Given recent developments in the international trading environment, enhancing our competitiveness is now more important than ever. Comprehensively addressing our country’s infrastructure deficits is among my key objectives as Minister.”
“Essential to this is first understanding in detail the barriers and blockages being encountered by departments, agencies and entities involved in project delivery, and secondly putting in place a comprehensive action plan to overcome these blockages.”
Mr Chambers told RTÉ’s This Week programme on Sunday there was a serious issue in the Irish economy regarding the delivery of infrastructure. He said this was why the Government was reviewing the National Development Plan with new levels of ambition. For too long there had been too many blockages to the delivery of infrastructural projects.
The Minister said that sitting beside a new National Development Plan with a new increased ambition there would be a series of reforms aimed at addressing some of the regulatory barriers in the Irish economy.
“In many ways too often the private interest for narrow sectoral groups is trumping the public interest. And that is why we need to examine overall regulation in the Irish economy as well; where we need to have balanced regulation when it comes to infrastructure delivery.
“And what I’m seeking to do is ensure that this external expertise actually reviews and assesses the processes, the systems, which may have existed for many years. We’ve provided additional staff in some of these areas, but the delivery is still too slow in too many areas.”
