Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 11 December 2025
21. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation the actions planned under Pillar 2 of the new Accelerating Infrastructure Plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [70478/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraLast week Government published the Accelerating Infrastructure Report and Action Plan. This sets out 30 high-impact reforms targeted at the most significant barriers to the delivery of critical infrastructure. The actions contained in the report are grouped into four pillars.
Pillar 2 focuses on Regulatory Reform and Simplification. Ireland’s regulatory landscape has become fragmented and overly complex. Regulatory approvals are too often sequential, adding unnecessarily to development timelines with risk aversion, driven by increasing judicial reviews of regulatory decisions, contributing to delay.
Reforming and streamlining planning, licensing, consenting, and regulatory processes that are applied to critical infrastructure to ensure they are proportional to the risks they are seeking to control will reduce unnecessary regulatory burden, thereby minimising the time and cost impacts on infrastructure delivery.
The actions under this pillar involve examining the structure of our regulatory environment, the practices applied by regulatory bodies, and how they communicate with one another and applicants. This will be progressed in parallel to the EU simplification agenda that aims to achieve a simpler and faster Europe.
The specific actions under Pillar 2 are:
• Developing and Publishing a National Planning Statement for Critical Infrastructure
• Establishing a Regulatory Simplification Unit
• Rationalising Legislation Underpinning Regulatory Processes
• Reforming Processes Applied to Critical Infrastructure within Agencies/ Regulators
• Implementing Early Warning System regarding EU Legislative Change on Critical Infrastructure
• Advocating for new approach to legislation at EU level on critical infrastructure
• Advising on Alternative Methods of Transposing EU Legislation
• Enabling Developer-led Infrastructure
• Reviewing the Role and Functions of the Office of the Planning Regulator and drive performance in the planning system, including consistency in decision-making
Full detail on each of these actions, the timelines for their implementation, and the responsible body is available in the Accelerating Infrastructure Report and Action Plan.
