“It’s better for a government to correct something than to leave it in terms of the status quo,” Infrastructure Minister Jack Chambers has said, admitting that the Government has “overregulated” various sectors and that this must now be rectified.
Speaking to Gript ahead of Cabinet this week, the Fianna Fáil Minister said that while regulations had often been introduced “for good reason”, their cumulative impact had been “excessive” and had contributed to delays in the delivery of major projects.
“I think governments across Europe have over-regulated in certain areas,” Chambers said.
Asked if this included Ireland, he replied: “I think so. I think there are certain levels of excessive regulation which contribute to delays and we need to be—we need to be objective and independent in assessing those and reforming those in the public interest to try and focus on speed of delivery.”
The comments came as Chambers outlined plans to bring forward what he described as one of the most significant reforms to the delivery of critical infrastructure, through the general scheme of a new Critical Infrastructure Bill. He said the proposed legislation is designed to fast-track projects deemed to be of national importance through existing processes involving permits and licences.
“So, we’re bringing forward one of the most important reforms to the delivery of critical infrastructure, as highlighted within a general scheme on a critical infrastructure bill,” he said.
“This is all about fast-tracking projects of critical and national importance through many of the processes, the permits, and the licences that are required to drive infrastructure delivery.”
Chambers said the legislation would also place a duty of co-operation on State bodies involved in processing infrastructure projects and would provide him, as Minister, with powers to direct bodies in order to improve performance.
“It also places a duty of cooperation on various state bodies around the processing of respective critical infrastructure,” he said.
“But also provides powers to me as the Minister to give direction to bodies to really drive performance of public bodies in the delivery of critical infrastructure.”
During the exchange, Chambers was asked whether the delays now being addressed were the result of regulations introduced by successive governments, and whether the current reforms amounted to an attempt to undo previous policy decisions.
“In certain instances, different governments in the past brought in certain regulations at a certain point of time for good reason,” he said.
“But the cumulative impact of all of these has been excessive, has produced time delays, and that’s why we need reform. We need to have a constant focus and look back at regulation in the economy.”
He said a regulatory simplification unit has been established within his Department to examine rules affecting infrastructure across its entire life cycle, including domestic legislation that may have been “gold-plated” in the past.
“That’s why I’ve separately stood up a regulatory simplification unit to take a further examination of all regulation across the infrastructure life cycle,” Chambers said.
“And that’s why we’ve a regulatory simplification unit in my own department to look at domestic legislation where previous governments may have excessively gold-plated regulation, and that’s contributed to delays. And where that requires reform, we’ll make decisions to change that.”
Chambers also pointed to the financial implications of delays in major capital projects, saying that prolonged timelines increase overall expenditure.
“Because we know the costs of delays means greater expenditure implications around capital projects,” he said.
“And the cumulative impact of regulation needs assessment; we need to simplify the rules and regulations to the best degree. And that means, of course, there might be changes to regulations that were brought in in the past, but it’s better for a government to correct something than to leave it in terms of the status quo when it’s contributing to particular delays.”
The Government has faced ongoing criticism over the pace of delivery of large-scale infrastructure projects, including housing, transport and energy developments. Concerns have been raised in recent years by industry representatives and public bodies about lengthy planning processes, environmental assessments and judicial reviews contributing to extended timelines.
The proposed Critical Infrastructure Bill is expected to form part of a broader effort to accelerate delivery in areas identified as strategically important, with the Government aiming to increase investment under the National Development Plan over the coming years.