Sir, – I note from “Misgivings among Fianna Fáil TDs over Fine Gael leader’s plan for a department of infrastructure” (News, December 5th) that the Taoiseach’s proposals to incorporate a Department of Infrastructure in the next government could become a become a bone of contention.
While I can see the merit of giving such a concept serious consideration, I would have some concerns regarding whether doing so is the most pragmatic approach to resolving the very real issues around infrastructure delivery.
To do so constructively, I believe that the focus has to be about identification of what aspects of the whole infrastructural development jigsaw are broken and what elements are working well – or at least in a position to work well if the bits that are broken are fixed. Ultimately, will the areas that need to perform better do so just because they are all influenced by the objectives which are the focus of a single government department?
Referring back to Martin Wall’s piece “Would a new Department of Infrastructure proposed by Simon Harris work? Experts are not so sure” (Analysis, September 6th), I agree with Prof Eoin Reeves’s questioning of whether the evolution of a Department of Infrastructure (DOI) would address challenges in the delivery of major projects posed by labour shortages, planning issues and the fact that the economy is full. Conversely, if these realities didn’t exist, would there be a discussion around the concept of a DOI at all?
Labour shortages, for instance, are an issue right across the construction sector, of which delivery of major infrastructure is merely a sub-sector – albeit a significant one. One doesn’t want the labour shortage issue effecting the major infrastructure sub-sector to be resolved at the expense of other critical sub-sectors such as housing just because it’s the sole focus of a senior minister.
Equally, the planning issues which need to be resolved also have wide-ranging impacts right across the construction sector and need to be dealt with in this context – not just in relation to major infrastructure. In simple terms, if the planning system isn’t working for everything, it isn’t working.
The rationale to emerge from the foregoing would suggest that the various key major infrastructural development programmes (whether referring to energy, roads, rail, water, etc) are better fighting from their own respective corners, as at present, and they’ll all do better once government ensures provision of the most effective policy framework by way of robust legislation, appropriate incentives and the resources to match. – Yours, etc,
TOM TIERNAN,
Ennis,
Co Clare.