DELAYS TO major infrastructure projects in Dublin are undermining economic recovery, the Dublin Chamber of Commerce has said.
The chamber cited delays to the second runway at Dublin airport, the frustration of Dublin Port’s investment plans and the delay in approving the Grangegorman development strategy plan as “indicative of the failure to provide for the long-term infrastructure needs of the economy”.
Chamber president Peter Brennan also highlighted under investment in health and schools infrastructure, the absence of comprehensive plans for water facilities, inadequate broadband provision and “unprofitable levies proposed for promoters of waste management projects” as signs of the Government’s failure.
He said delays to major infrastructure projects in Dublin are undermining the region’s competitiveness and prospects of national economic recovery.
“While public sector salaries remain in the top quartile worldwide, our infrastructure provision continues to be in the bottom quartile,” Mr Brennan said.
He called for the full implementation of the McCarthy report, which recommended cuts in public service, before the Government cuts the public capital programme.
He also called on the Government to clarify its intentions about the capital programme and will accuse it of having failed to create the conditions to facilitate investment in infrastructure.
“This is not a credible situation for the national economy and particularly the Dublin City Region which is losing its competitive position year-on-year,” he said.
He also said the directly elected mayor of Dublin, when appointed, should play a central role in identifying Dublin’s infrastructure needs and should use his or her influence to bring public servants and private-sector promoters together in project teams to fast-track the delivery of priority projects.
Mr Brennan also said there is a need for greater reliance on public private partnership projects.
“Public procurement processes are overly burdensome and must be reformed and a mindset change is required amongst public servants to make it easier for project promoters to remove obstacles where investments of strategic importance are concerned,” he said.
Mr Brennan is to deliver a speech to the Construction Industry Council this evening.
