Government decisions are a core barrier to the development of the infrastructure essential for housing provision, according to Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne.<\/p>\n
Deputy Hearne said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government is trying to ignore that it has been decades of underinvestment, poor delivery, management and planning by successive Fianna Fail and Fine Gael governments that has created the massive infrastructure deficit, in particular in relation to housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Accelerating Infrastructure – Report and Action Plan outlines that there has been a persistent failure to adequately invest in infrastructure over the last three decades – Ireland infrastructure gap was consistently 25% below the European average during that time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe austerity cuts to capital budgets implemented by Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael from 2009 to 2016 were particularly disastrous for infrastructure investment, and that lost decade remains at the heart of the cause of our infrastructure crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a massive indictment that the majority of the 12 barriers to infrastructure development identified in today\u2019s report are caused by government mismanagement, ineffectiveness and underfunding.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Department of Housing and DPER\u2019s overly complex approval stages, lengthy internal reviews, and disproportionate documentation requirements have led to incredibly slow processes that negatively affect the speed of housing provision without improving outcomes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn particular, there are local authorities and Affordable Housing Bodies which are required to endure multi-step approval processes with the Department of Housing which delays the development of critical social and affordable housing delivery – today\u2019s report highlights that DPER itself is a core barrier in the time it takes for approving projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s major uncertainty around funding and project pipelines for housing which, as the report notes, undermines confidence in Ireland\u2019s infrastructure delivery system, making it difficult for developers and contractors to plan effectively.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no proposals to ramp up the number of planners and court resources needed to speed up the planning process.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s report fails to provide solutions for two of the fundamental barriers to our infrastructure development: the consistent underfunding of public infrastructure and the over-reliance on the private market to deliver housing, transport and wastewater.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government\u2019s market-led ideology of outsourcing delivery is keeping us stuck in perpetual underinvestment and infrastructural bottlenecks – the State must show greater ambition if the housing crisis is to be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
December 3rd, 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Government decisions are a core barrier to the development of the infrastructure essential for housing provision, according to Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne. Deputy Hearne said: \u201cThe Government is trying to ignore that it has been decades of underinvestment, poor delivery, management and planning by successive Fianna Fail and Fine Gael governments that has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12981,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[663,10,789,7,788,660,510],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homelessness","category-housing-crisis","category-infrastructure","category-press-release","category-public-expenditure","category-public-services","category-rory-hearne"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n