How to get “things” done more quickly is going to be an undercurrent to the whole election campaign.
The need to build more new houses, water and energy infrastructure and more schools and hospitals for an increasing population is a key issue – and one where the outgoing Coalition has faced problems, both in terms of delivery and in some cases spiralling bills.
In its manifesto published on Monday, Fianna Fáil is trying to piggy back on the success of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA). Currently led by Frank O’Connor, it was initially established in late 1990 to manage the national debt, an area where it has had considerable success. The party’s manifesto suggests that the NTMA be charged in future with overseeing major infrastructure projects – in areas like the energy grid, water, State housing and so on.
This would effectively be an expansion of the mandate of the NTMA – it already has expanded significantly, and has a unit called the National Development Finance Agency which advises Government departments and State bodies on the funding of major projects and, in some cases, oversees deals involving private sector investment in these. In future, Fianna Fáil says, it will be responsible for “ oversight and delivery”, a much more complex and far-reaching task.
One reason to do this is evidence that the system is not now sufficiently co-ordinated to deliver major projects in a timely fashion. Another is that Civil Service pay rates can make it difficult to attract mobile talent in vital areas like engineering and project management – which, in terms of financial expertise to manage the national debt, was one of the reasons for establishing the NTMA in the first place. According to the party, “this new unit within the NTMA will recruit world-class talent with proven experience in large-scale project delivery,” to ensure “best in class processes and procedures are implemented by the sponsoring department or body.” No more endless overruns in time and spending like the children’s hospital, in other words.
Would this work? It could, though this depends more on the skills and ability of the people undertaking the task and whether the new planning legislation can really speed up projects than on the precise organisational structure. The Fianna Fáil plan has some echoes of the recommendation in the Housing Commission report, which called for a Housing Oversight Delivery Executive to pull things together on housing and the required infrastructure. Sinn Féin, in its housing plan, has also recognised the importance of building up expertise and proposes that one local authority could act as a base of expertise for local government across the State.
Election Daily: O'Learygate gets Fine Gael off to a bumpy start
Fine Gael is set to take a different approach, proposing a new department of infrastructure which will, presumably, take in much of the existing work of the departments of transport and housing. Both plans are likely to focus on plugging more senior engineering and project management talent into the system. In both cases there are – varying – questions about how the new structures would relate to other parts of the official Civil Service and State company landscape and the role that would remain with the Department of Public Expenditure in overseeing projects. A big issue here – as shown by the row when the NTMA was set up in the first place over resistance from the Department of Finance – is that existing civil servants and state will be sensitive to their power being eroded.
The detail of this will not win general elections. But it is clear that the parties are responding to a general public unease about the ability of the government to “get things done.” And to the economic imperative of delivering in these areas.
- Sign up for the Business Today newsletter and get the latest business news and commentary in your inbox every weekday morning
- Opt in to Business push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Our Inside Business podcast is published weekly – Find the latest episode here
