Standing outside Government Buildings on a chilly morning yesterday, Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers explained to journalists that while a media and political narrative tends to focus on the threat judicial reviews pose to delivery of infrastructure, there is more to his new action plan than just a crackdown on the bothersome legal instruments.
That may well be the case – the new action plan is focused on a wide range of measures that cover the way EU regulations are transposed in Ireland all the way down to how to build support for big projects that disrupt local areas.
But there is no avoiding the constant presence in the report of judicial reviews, which are blamed not just for halting or delaying projects but for creating a “culture of caution” and for further complicating Ireland’s regulations by setting new case law.
Our lead story today focuses on yet another measure that the Government is now considering. People who object to infrastructure projects could be offered damages rather than allow judicial reviews to delay a project, under a plan to give the Government more power to decide when and how the legal instruments can be used. It’s part of a plan to place the entire judicial review process on a statutory footing.
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“This potentially affords Government much greater flexibility to determine the circumstances in which judicial review procedures can be utilised. This could include measures that would significantly accelerate infrastructure provision such as limiting judicial reviews to the ultimate planning decision underpinning a decision, rather than currently where every licence, consent and planning condition is separately subject to judicial review,” the report said.
In between the plans to cut red tape, to regulate and to put more pressure on Government departments and State agencies to deliver big projects, the Government is also going to try to put a big focus on challenging Nimbyism. The report describes how the immediate impacts of a big infrastructure project on a local area can prompt objections, while the benefits of that project – which may not be experienced for many years – can seem abstract and distant. The public can expect to be told more about how these needed, albeit disruptive, projects are designed to serve the greater national good.
The report effectively argues that Ireland’s infrastructure deficit – the fact that so many of the things we have here were built and designed for a far smaller population – is making all of our lives worse. This can be from the 80 hours a year that drivers in Dublin lose to traffic delays, to higher energy bills, to the inability of so many to be able to buy a home.
Both the Taoiseach and Tánaiste fear that failing to deliver infrastructure will be a major threat to social cohesion, which in and of itself is a threat to the centre holding in Irish politics. They know that they need to get this right.
In the opinion pages today Fergal O’Rourke, a member of the taskforce who worked on the report, is writing about how it is time for the “common good” to take centre stage, and optimistically wonders if this might be the moment that the country gets serious about critical infrastructure.
In his analysis piece today, Pat Leahy writes that for the Government the “political stakes could hardly be higher. Nothing within its power is more important for the Coalition than making this work”.
Fianna Fáil’s presidential woes
The fate of Micheál Martin’s leadership of Fianna Fáil may or may not be under threat in the wake of his party’s dismal presidential performance. We won’t know until 2026.
Harry McGee was reporting last night on the latest parliamentary party meeting, which heard that the review into Fianna Fáil’s disastrous presidential election campaign is unlikely to be published until the new year.
The weekly parliamentary party meeting was also told the report is being reviewed by lawyers for the party and by those representing Jim Gavin, who dramatically withdrew from the election campaign at the end of September.
The review was initially scheduled to be completed by November 12th, but the date of its completion has been put back several times since.
There may be real merit in the report being delayed for Martin, if it diminishes the anger that some of his colleagues are feeling towards him.
In other relatively late political news, Marie O’Halloran was writing last night about how the Seanad was suspended twice in a heated row over an extended vote deadline, which allowed eight Government Senators, who were late, get to the chamber.
The vote was called on one of a series of amendments from Independent Senator Lynn Ruane to the Defamation Bill.
A vote can only be taken by the Cathaoirleach or Leas-Cathaoirleach, in this instance Leas-Chathaoirleach Maria Byrne.
Ms Ruane angrily disputed the vote going ahead and said the doors should have been locked after three minutes, but the delay allowed eight additional Senators to enter the chamber after the deadline.
Syria’s disappeared
Sally Hayden has a harrowing but vital story in the newspaper today, about “a new cache of tens of thousands of images of starved, tortured and murdered detainees who perished in Syria’s Assad-era prisons and detention facilities”.
She writes how “the new photographs could provide more information to family members about the fates of missing loved ones, and more undeniable evidence to the rest of the world about the crimes against humanity and war crimes carried out by the Assad regime, which used detention and torture to instil widespread fear and maintain control”.
Sally reports how The Irish Times “became aware of the existence of the leaked photographs in October and has advocated for consulting victims’ families regarding their release”.
Best Reads
Miriam Lord is asking will the Government’s “30-pint infrastructure plan bring festive cheer to all?” She notes that there was a bit of a tug of war between the Coalition partners to claim the new infrastructure plan as their own
Finn McRedmond is writing about the captivating and salacious journalism scandal that has engulfed US politics, with the release of a new memoir from a reporter who was revealed to have had an emotional affair with RFK Jr when covering his failed bid to run for president
And Newton Emerson is musing on how Northern Ireland’s migration issues may soon become a problem for the Republic
Playbook
Dáil schedule for today is as follows:
08:47 Parliamentary Questions: Oral — Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht
10:24 Parliamentary Questions: Oral — Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration
12:00 Leaders’ Questions (Sinn Féin, Labour Party, Social Democrats, Independent and Parties Technical Group)
12:34 Other Members’ Questions
12:42 Questions on Policy or Legislation
13:12 Bills for Introduction: Gender Recognition (Amendment) (Prisons) Bill 2025 — First Stage
13:17 SOS
13:57 Government Business: Irish Film Board (Amendment) Bill 2025 — Second Stage
(Department of Culture, Communications and Sport)
17:31 Topical Issues
19:31 Private Members’ Bill or Committee Report (alternating weekly): Just Transition (Worker and Community Environmental Rights) Bill 2021 — Second Stage
21:31 Dáil adjourns
And the Seanad schedule is as follows:
09:30 Commencement Matters
11:00 Order of Business
11:45 Government Business: Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2025 — All Stages
13:00 Private Members’ Business: Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2025 — Second Stage
15:00 Seanad adjourns
