Ireland plans to fast-track critical infrastructure

The Critical Infrastructure Bill will require public bodies to do everything in their power to accelerate approval of projects designated as essential by the government. - with experts saying the proposed legislation would bring greater certainty and predictability to developing infrastructure projects in the republic.

Areas such as energy, transport and water infrastructure are highlighted as critical for all other developments in Ireland to progress, with each individual project to be classed as critical set to be the subject of an order put to the Irish parliament.

It comes after the Irish government published an action plan to highlight known barriers in infrastructure delivery last year and an action list for how to address them, which included the enactment of this bill.

Catherine Burns, an infrastructure expert with Pinsent Masons in Belfast, said the proposed legislation would help keep important projects on track.

“The Critical Infrastructure Bill represents a decisive shift from procedural compliance to delivery accountability, signalling that nationally significant projects will no longer be allowed to stall due to fragmented decision-making,” she said.

“What makes this legislation different is not faster planning laws, but the imposition of binding duties on public bodies to prioritise, coordinate and resource critical projects across the state.”

The proposals would require public bodies to work together to focus administrative, technical and decision-making resources on quick approvals for designated projects – although they would not remove any regulatory or legal safeguards. As part of the proposals, emergency powers could also be implemented to ensure project approval.

Criteria for designated projects have been kept narrow to avoid undermining the wider Irish planning system, but would include significant consequences of delay, knock-on effects for other projects, and alignment with broader national infrastructure priorities.

Significantly, under the proposals, public bodies would be immune from challenges to critical projects on climate legislation grounds. Ireland’s public expenditure and infrastructure minister Jack Chambers said the approach of the bill to interaction with climate legislation is to prevent “weaponisation” of the Climate Act.

Garrett Monaghan, an energy expert with Pinsent Masons in Dublin, said this step would add an extra layer of challenge to implementing the proposals.

“This will be a delicate balancing act,” and needs to be reconciled with significant and evolving Irish and EU legislation and caselaw,” he explained.

“In broader terms, though, for investors and sponsors the Bill is less about bypassing safeguards and more about restoring predictability to infrastructure timelines that have become increasingly uncertain.”

Alongside the bill, the Irish government issued two circulars to improve regulatory processes by public sector bodies which responsibilities to critical infrastructure, including rapid reporting of judicial decisions that could affect infrastructure delivery.

Chambers said public bodies in Ireland would be monitored to make sure they complied with the proposed new rules.

“This bill will make sure that those projects and programmes that the Government designates as critical infrastructure will get speedy and coordinated attention on a whole-of-state basis, cutting timelines and eliminating delays,” he said.

“These projects and programmes will go to the top of the queue for consideration in every public body and will be fast-tracked path through existing processes without skipping any steps.

“My department will monitor the performance of public bodies in implementing this legislation and the legislation also gives me power to direct any public body to adopt measures that I deem may be necessary for compliance with this legislation.

“These measures will address delays across the system and accelerate the delivery of key infrastructure for the people of Ireland.”