Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 February 2026
521. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation whether any formal assessment has been carried out by his Department to determine if delays in major infrastructure delivery are attributable to ministerial decision-making, statutory processes, or other factors; to provide details of any such assessment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11929/26]
View answerIn July 2025, my Department published the Report on Stakeholder Engagement and Emerging Themes on Infrastructure, which provided a comprehensive assessment of the factors contributing to delays in major infrastructure delivery. The purpose of that report was to identify the most significant barriers to the timely provision of critical infrastructure and to inform the development of a whole-of-Government response.
This assessment was grounded in research undertaken by officials in my Department, which reviewed infrastructure development and delivery in Ireland and abroad. In addition, Department officials met directly with more than 50 key stakeholders involved in the development and delivery of infrastructure in Ireland between May and June 2025. This was complemented by a public consultation which received nearly 170 submissions, as well as engagement events at the National Economic Dialogue and a regional consultation in Athlone.
The findings show that delays cannot be attributed to any single source. Instead, twelve inter-related barriers were identified across three broad areas:
Regulatory Environment: including complex, overlapping and sequential consent processes, increased administrative burden, risk aversion, and insufficient coordination across regulatory bodies.
Planning and Legal Systems: particularly the scale and impact of judicial reviews, which have grown substantially and contribute to uncertainty, extended timelines, and increased costs.
Internal Systems: including fragmented governance, lengthy appraisal and approval processes, procurement challenges, uncertainty around project pipelines, and capacity constraints within the construction sector.
The report makes clear that while statutory and legal processes play a significant role, administrative complexity, regulatory fragmentation, and market capacity constraints are also major contributors to delay. No evidence from the assessment indicated that ministerial decision-making is a primary cause of delays; rather, it is the cumulative impact of processes across multiple public bodies that lengthens the development cycle.
Following this assessment, Government published the Accelerating Infrastructure Report and Action Plan in December 2025, which sets out a comprehensive suite of 30 actions across four reform pillars. The Action Plan has now moved into implementation, with the majority of actions scheduled for delivery in 2026.
