An Coimisiún Pleanála is set to become the only State agency with the power to issue compulsory purchase orders under new Government plans.
In an effort to change the way the State approaches infrastructure delivery, the Government plans to, among other things, deny funding to Government Departments or State bodies if they fail to provide land for the delivery of wastewater, transport or energy projects.
The plans were outlined by Fianna Fáil Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers, ahead of the publication of a 30-point Government report later this week aimed at increasing the speed and efficiency of infrastructure delivery. The report was compiled by the State’s Accelerating Infrastructure Taskforce.
Speaking on RTÉ’s ‘This Week’ programme, Chambers said the plans were necessary to prevent situations where State bodies were not cooperating on the use of public land.
“As minister for public expenditure, I provide sanction on spending,” he said.
“As far as I’m concerned, any agency or department that withholds land which is required for critical infrastructure, they’ll have a change to their sanction. That will have to be advanced as a means to force co-operation.”
Chambers said the Government would also be developing a Critical Infrastructure Bill in the next year and legislate for emergency powers to ensure infrastructure projects could be provided promptly.
These emergency powers, he said, would “go to the edge of what’s legally and constitutionally possible to rebalance rights in the Irish economy”.
He said that in order to prepare the economy for the coming decades, there would need to be “targeted deregulation” and “much greater simplification” of the way infrastructure and planning operate.
“What’s happening is, we’ve got a fragmented nature of processes and systems and red tape, where minor technical issues are being weaponised by certain individuals to block infrastructure delivery,” he said.
“Essentially, no residents association should supercede the public good and the common good. If that was the case, we would have never build Ardnacrusha.”
He added that the State would try to stop ‘gold-plating’ of EU regulations, and that the new plans would result in a “real change” in how the State can “build momentum” in delivery of major projects.
Similar overtures have been made by Taoiseach Micheál Martin in recent weeks, with the Fianna Fáil leader asserting that the planning system had been “weaponised” by certain individuals to hold up vital public projects.