The Government has been advised that amendments to the Constitution may be necessary to ensure that important projects proposed in the National Development Plan are not delayed by planning objections.
In a private report to the Government, the Cross-Departmental Team on Infrastructural Development has warned that the judicial review process will have to be investigated to determine whether current procedures are unnecessarily delaying the outcome of legal challenges to projects.
The report, completed in September, suggested that one way of speeding up the legal process would be the setting up of a special division of the High Court. The Irish Times reported last week that the Government was considering this option.
The report warned that the progress of transport infra structural projects was being "increasingly threatened or delayed" by external objections and challenges. "These can involve judicial reviews, the EU complaints procedure, the requirements of other public bodies, or a combination of these", it stated.
The Cross-Departmental Team was established in June to develop and oversee implementation of the framework for action on infrastructural development. It was mandated to propose a framework of action to the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructural Development and Public-Private Partnerships, together with implementation structures and timescales.
The Cabinet Committee is made up of the Taoiseach, the Tanaiste, the Minister for Finance, the Minister for Public Enterprise, the Minister for the Environment and Local Government and the Attorney General.
The report, which has been seen by The Irish Times, recommended that the Cabinet Committee should focus on the timely delivery of the key transport infrastructure which must be put in place by 2006 if Ireland is not to "suffer major constraints on its growth potential".
It emphasised that investment in housing supply, water and waste management and electricity supply was also of the "highest importance".
The report said that the Planning Bill warranted the highest priority in the programme of legislation and should be enacted before Easter 2000. The Bill contains a number of fundamental reforms in relation to the provision of public infrastructure.
Other legislation and administrative procedures which applied to infrastructural developments, including rail, conservation and marine licensing, should be reviewed "as a matter of urgency" by the relevant Departments, the report said.
"The aim should be to eliminate unnecessary delays in the approval process. The infrastructure support unit of the Department of Finance and the regulatory reform unit of the Department of the Taoiseach will give this package of reform the highest priority."
The report said that, apart from looking at the judicial review process, the team would study the feasibility of having the largest segments of infrastructure approved in one procedure. It would also look at methods of improving the approval procedures for projects, so as to minimise the likelihood of judicial review proceedings being sought.
"The team will also consider whether amendments to the Constitution are necessitated to protect the community interest in ensuring that infrastructural projects are completed speedily, without unnecessary legal and other obstacles, while preserving the rights of individuals under EU law and under the European Convention of Human Rights."
The report pointed out that an expanded infrastructural programme on the scale now planned would inevitably give rise to objections in relation to the impact on individuals. "A widespread consensus in favour of increased and accelerated infrastructural investment will not in itself translate into active support for, or an absence of objections to, individual projects. One only needs to look to the examples of the Southern Cross motorway, the Dublin Port Tunnel, Luas and Quality Bus Corridors to see this reality."
It was important that infra structural development should be "championed" in the national context. To achieve this, the team proposed developing a communications strategy to inform the public of the necessity for, and the economic and environmental benefits of, development.