The delivery of the NDP presents many significant challenges to meet the project delivery schedules and cost projections in a time of supply chain and resource constraints.   While delays in planning and delivery lead to increased project costs, the greater impact is the societal cost of capacity deficits and the opportunity costs when anticipated benefits are delayed coming onstream.   In this report the Irish Academy of Engineering (IAE) describes some of the significant infrastructure planned and particularly the cross functional infrastructure required to meet the housing programme delivery.   Tim Corcoran Chair of the Academy Infrastructure committee said: “It is important to approach infrastructure investment in a co-ordinated manner  and prioritize those projects that will bring genuine lasting benefits to the larger portion of the population.”   Infrastructure is often regarded as a cost but, when carefully chosen, is an investment in the future.   Tom Leahy, Past President of the Academy, said “ In this report we identify the significant private sector investment leveraged off the public sector investment in both the Medical Technology industry and the Biopharmaceutical industry since the 1950’s”   The key recommendations and conclusions of the report are:  

• Projects are often packaged according to their function ( Water, Energy, Roads & Transportation, , Flooding etc.) however to deliver programmes, such as Housing for all, it is essential that ‘Strategic infrastructure Plans’ are prepared, assessed and prioritized ‘across’ Government Departments rather than ‘within’ individual departments.
• Comparing the NDP top 50 largest water sector schemes published in September 2023 with the NDP Top 50 largest schemes published a year later in November 2024 it is surprising to note that:
  • Flooding – Of the 4 schemes identified in 2023 top 50 list only 1 was retained in the 2024 Top 50 and the number of Flooding schemes in the top 50 projects reduced to 3
  • Uisce Éireann – Of the 7 large schemes identified in the 2023 top 50 list only 2 were retained in the 2024 Top 50 list and the number of Uisce Éireann schemes in the top 50 reduced to 6.
• Of 29 Road Projects proposed by TII, only three are at or proceeding to construction, while the remainder are at various stages of planning.
• Infrastructure is often regarded as a cost and in the report, we identify the significant private sector investment leveraged off the public sector investment in both the Medical Technology industry and the Biopharmaceutical industry since the 1950’s

 

• All major projects should have annually reviewed cost and delivery plans with full cost estimates using standard cost templates for all project phases including estimating the impact of inflation on project cost to the end of the planned construction phase including a statement of the public benefit of the project.

 

• A committed pipeline of projects should be published to encourage domestic and international organizations to gear up to deliver. It would also give confidence to people in Ireland to join the construction sector – at all levels

 

• Multi-annual funding should be available to reassure the infrastructure delivery industry that there is a consistent volume of work available to price and deliver, and avoid stop/go phases in priority projects, which continues to cause inefficiencies in spending, delays and acceleration in a sub-optimal way.