Joint Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery

Introduction

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today, to discuss TII’s role in delivering high-quality transport infrastructure, including projects in the NDP.

I am joined by my colleague Geraldine Fitzpatrick, TII’s Acting Director of Capital Programmes.

TII’s role in delivering transport infrastructure isset out in the duties and functions assigned to TII through legislation.

The National Roads Authority (NRA), operating as Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) since 2015, was established under the Roads Act 1993. It is the general duty of TII to secure the provision of a safe and efficient network of national roads having regard to the needs of all users. Under the Infrastructure Guidelines, TII is the Approving Authority for national road projects and works in partnership with Local Authorities, which are the road authorities for all roads, including national roads.

In 2015 the NRA was merged with the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) and the Roads Act was amended to include the function to secure the provision of, or to provide such metro and light railway infrastructure as may be determined by the Minister or, in the Greater Dublin Area, by the NTA. Under the Infrastructure Guidelines, TII is the Sponsoring Agency and the NTA is the Approving Authority for metro and light railway projects.

National Development Plan (NDP)

The NDP sets priorities for investment generally over a ten-year period and is therefore important in determining which transport projects TII can progress. While the NDP outlines longer-term objectives, TII’s funding, to deliver those objectives, is provided on a year-by-year basis. The Minister may set conditions in relation to these annual allocations.

Currently, TII is progressing a number of nationally significant projects which are set out in the NDP and the Climate Action Plan. Details of these are included in the attached appendices. Annual grant allocations to TII have been sub-optimal over the first half of the current NDP and this has limited the advancement of many of these projects. Funding constraints have resulted, most profoundly last year and this year, in cuts to asset renewal activity across the national road network, to ensure that sufficient funds were available to advance the Government’s priority projects.

New infrastructure requires a commitment to the consequent cost of protecting and renewing the asset or the asset value will diminish.

Delivery in Partnership with Local Authorities

To deliver national roads projects, TII operates in close partnership with Local Authorities through a regional management structure and engages on a regular basis to monitor delivery programmes and track expenditure. TII funds eleven National Roads Offices located around the country which are populated by Local Authority staff.

Once annual grant allocations for roads projects are notified to TII by the Department of Transport, TII provides project specific annual allocations to each Local Authority. The grant allocations are then paid to the local authorities, over the course of the year, to reimburse costs incurred in the delivery of those projects.

Project Oversight and Approvals Processes

TII has established processes and procedures which are aligned with the Infrastructure Guidelines to oversee the delivery of national road and greenway projects, as outlined in:

• TII’s Project Management Guidelines
• TII’s Project Appraisal Guidelines
• TII Design Standards

The Government’s Infrastructure Guidelines include three Approval Gates to be approved by the Approving Authority:

• Approval Gate 1: which allows submission for Planning Approval
• Approval Gate 2: which allows commencement of Procurement
• Approval Gate 3: which allows entering a Construction Contract

Having successfully achieved Approval Gate 1 the sponsoring agency is required to obtain statutory planning approval before a capital infrastructure project can proceed.

Projects with an estimated capital cost in excess of €200 million are subject to additional external assurances by the Department of Transport and by DPENDR, and additional approvals from Government for Approval Gates 1 and 3 and from the Minister of Transport for Approval Gate 2.

Review of Obstacles to Infrastructure Delivery

Given TII’s experience of delivering significant transport investment, we are appreciative of having been invited to contribute to DPENDR’s review of barriers to infrastructure delivery. In this regard I would like to commend the telescoped approval approach used for the Adare Bypass project last year, which accelerated the start of construction.

Other issues which impact efficient delivery of infrastructure are the absence of flexible multi-annual funding for delivery agencies and the consequent lack of a credible portfolio of projects to generate market confidence

In my view, the advantages of a funded portfolio of projects may be overlooked. The positive impact of such an approach was evident during the delivery of Ireland’s interurban motorway network.

That concludes my opening statement. My colleague and I will endeavour to provide any further information that members of the committee may require.