Elaine Loughlin: Ireland’s broken infrastructure is no longer someone else’s problem

Warnings about catastrophic infrastructure failures are now impossible to ignore — even the quietest experts are raising their voices

In the late 1930s, the government of the day was willing to flood an entire village to allow for an ESB hydroelectrical development on the River Liffey at Poulaphuca, Co Wicklow, which remains one of two major water sources for Dublin. Picture: Silverblaster

Those with the most illuminating insights often have a habit of being frustratingly dull.

The injection of colour into the warnings now being issued by naturally cautious civil servants and economic boffins should terrify the Government.

The deficit across the country's water, housing, transport, and energy infrastructure has become so acute that usually level-headed experts are ripping off the grey suits and jumping up and down in a desperate bid to draw attention to how incredibly exposed we are.

Pointing to the "catastrophic consequences” of a lack of investment in critical infrastructure over the years, the Government's own appointed expert Sean O'Driscoll this week warned that in five years Dublin will not have enough water to supply the number of houses that it has planned.

"Are we saying we can’t build a water system for the capital city of the country today? We need radical thinking," the ERSI chairman and member of the new 'accelerating infrastructure' taskforce, said in an interview with the Irish Examiner.

"Politicians like to avoid taking tough decisions.

But if we’re going to crack infrastructure, hard decisions are going to have to be taken, and this will have to be treated as a national emergency. We admit it is one, and then we treat it as such.

Mr O'Driscoll is among a growing number of individuals who have made similar eyebrow-raising interjections as they try to impress the gravity of the situation upon those who have the ability to tackle what is now deemed an emergency.

But that will require radical and incredibly stark decisions, two things politicians may often talk about but seldom actually deliver on.

Last month department of environment, climate, and energy secretary general Oonagh Buckley warned that such is the strain on capacity that “we’re having to even think about prioritising what is the social need of the demand [for energy] — is it housing or is it AI?”

“We’re going to have to think much more about managing demand," Ms Buckley said.

Her utterances, later dismissed by the Taoiseach, came just two weeks after the head of Uisce Éireann spoke out about delays to wastewater infrastructure projects, which are preventing young people from buying homes and costing billions extra in taxpayer funds.

Niall Gleeson, who was speaking at the official opening of a wastewater treatment plant in Arklow, Co Wicklow, said that a similar project in north Dublin, which had received planning permission at the same time, was yet to begin due to planning objections.

This, he said, had potentially doubled the cost from its €600m build cost in 2019 and hit out at ‘banana’ objectors — those who believe we should “build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything”.

As pointed out by Mr O'Driscoll, one of the main reasons for the stagnation of critical infrastructure projects is that the political system has become risk-averse.

Taskforces are set up, plans drafted, consultations rolled out and all the while our creaking infrastructure comes under more strain.

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While options to fast track development, including Part 9 planning and Section 5 planning measures, already exist, we now need to go nuclear.

Brave but unpopular decisions which ultimately benefit the economy and the population as a whole have been made before.

In the late 1930s, the government of the day was willing to flood an entire village to allow for an ESB hydroelectrical development on the River Liffey at Poulaphuca, Co Wicklow.

The tender for the ambitious project, which involved the demolition of 76 houses; the blowing up bridges at Humphreystown, Baltyboys, and Burgage; as well as the relocation of a 12th century cross, was issued in January 1937.

Could you imagine if such an idea was even floated today?

Drawing up a relocation compensation package would be mired in years, if not decades, of negotiations, consultations, and ultimately legal cases.

But just three years after the tender was published, the flooding of the village and 5,000 acres of farmland, bog, and homes was under way, creating the reservoir which remains one of two major sources of Dublin’s water supply.

Eight decades on, as the capital faces a water shortage crisis, talk of a pipeline that would direct water from the River Shannon to the Dublin region is still in the early stages, with planning not expected to be complete until the second half of 2027.

All the while, the cost of such a project spirals with the latest indication being that it could exceed €10bn in a worst-case risk scenario.

Playing down an increasingly alarming situation when it comes to our energy grid, water system, and other crucial infrastructure, also comes down to a uniquely Irish trait — that of not wanting to be the one to trample all over the green jersey when you should be seen to be wearing it with pride.

“People in business are uncomfortable speaking out, generally,” Mr O’Driscoll said this week.

“Many of us in the business world have been talking about this privately for at least a decade, but if you spoke about it publicly, it was seen as ‘talking down Ireland’, or being disloyal, or making the IDA’s job more difficult in attracting foreign direct investment.

“US multinationals won’t do it because it draws attention to them. 

"The public sector won’t do it. The private sector keeps its head down. I’ve reached a point in my life where I’ve nothing to lose, or fear, by doing so.”

Government, take note.