Roche to bring fast-track planning laws back to Cabinet

The Minister for the Environment, Mr Roche, is to revise fast-track planning legislation for major infrastructure projects and bring the Bill back to the Cabinet.

In a statement to ireland.coma Department official confirmed the Critical Infrastructure Bill was being "tweaked" and a new version would be brought before the Cabinet shortly.

The spokesman was unable to say if the controversial waste elements of the Bill would be removed.

Attempts by Mr Roche's predecessor, Mr Martin Cullen, to get the Bill approved failed, following opposition by some ministers to the inclusion of waste projects in the legislation.

The Bill was designed to speed up delivery of major public initiatives like motorways, incinerators and the proposed metro.

Mr Kevin Kernan, the director general of the Institution of Engineers' of Ireland (IEI) welcomed the Bill returning to the agenda. In a report on the National Development Plan (NDP) released today, the IEI said enacting the Bill is a matter of the "utmost urgency."

However, the report goes on to describe the NDP as being out of date, behind schedule and needing revision if the country's infrastructure deficit is to be resolved.

It suggests that under current funding provisions and planning laws, the NDP will not be completed until 2013, seven years late.

The report is the second significant criticism of the Government's infrastructure programme in a week and echoes a warning from IBEC that the current level of activity would not meet the country's needs and posed a serious threat to economic growth.

Mr Eamon Gilmore, Labour Party spokesperson on the Environment and Local Government described the report as the "most savage criticism yet of the Government's management of the country".

"The report shows that under almost every heading, the provision of infrastructure in Ireland is several years behind the targets set in the National Development Plan and that Ireland is now dangerously close to the Competitiveness Relegation Zone."

In calling for a revised NDP the Institution said that the population has grown by 8 per cent and GNP by 32 since the NDP was conceived.

Mr Kernan said a new development plan aimed at closing Ireland's infrastructure gap by 2015 was the only method to ensure the economy's future competitiveness.

"There are a lot of important projects that have come to the fore that aren't part of the NDP. The National Spatial Strategy isn't covered, the metro and lots of other projects aren't included and it is timely that we include them in a revised NDP."

"The infrastructure Bill in itself won't address that. Current rankings show us to be bottom of the [infrastructure] pile," he said.

The IEI report is particularly critical of the rollout of waste management projects planned under the NDP, saying this is the area "least progress has been made".

"No new thermal waste facilities have been provided, only one new landfill has been developed . . . .and there has been a significant increase in unauthorised waste disposal."

It also notes that little or no progress has been made for recycling paper, glass metals and plastics.

While the report recommends the introduction of domestic water charges to pay for investment in water services, a spokesman for the Department of the Environment said this was prohibited under the Water Pricing Framework. "There are no proposals to change this policy," he said.

The report notes that aside from road projects the existing PPP programme has "lost credibility" with the result that the anticipated €2.35 billion in private investment for roads, water supply and, public transport and waste management will not be raised.

Ireland was ranked 28th out of 29 countries for infrastructure by the World Competitiveness Yearbook in 2003.