knowledge 3 December 2025 |

Beyond the Headlines: What the ‘Accelerating Infrastructure Report and Action Plan’ means for infrastructure delivery in Ireland.

The Plan sets out 30 headline actions grouped into 4 key pillars – (i) Legal Reform, (ii) Regulatory Reform and Simplification, (iii) Coordination and Delivery Reform, and (iv) Public Acceptance, to be implemented over 2026.  The Plan is focussed on ‘critical infrastructure’ namely, the electricity network, water and transport infrastructure.

Pillar 1 – Legal Reform

Commencement of Chapter 2, Part 9, Planning and Development Act 2024

Under this Pillar there are 7 Actions, the first being to ‘Reform Judicial Review’.  While the Government is committed to progressing fundamental reform of the judicial review system through the enactment of the Civil Reform Bill (Action 7), in the interim other reforms of judicial review are to be prioritised for immediate implementation, including the ‘immediate’ commencement of the procedures within Part 9 of the Planning and Development Act 2024 (as amended) (the “2024 Act”) in relation to the scale of fees (Chapter 2 of Part 9). The term ‘immediate’ should be contextualised here as implementation of this action requires the preparation and publication of subordinate legislation prescribing the monetary amounts of fee caps for different types of legal proceedings.  We therefore anticipate the commencement of Chapter 2 of Part 9 of the 2024 Act more in the short term than immediate.  It is also worth noting that the provisions of Chapter 2 of Part 9 of the 2024 Act only apply to certain proceedings, principally to challenges to decisions made under the 2024 Act.  As we await the commencement of a large number of the 2024 Act provisions, as of now, there are very few challenges to which these new costs rules, once commenced, will apply.  

Applicant Liability for Costs

There is also a commitment in the Plan to examine the potential for adopting a model based on UK provisions on the costs applicants face in environmental judicial reviews.  In Ireland, as confirmed by the Supreme Court in Heather Hill Management Company CLG & McGoldrick v An Bord Pleanala, Burkeway Homes Limited and the Attorney General [2022] IESC 43, a protective costs order under section 50B of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended) (the “2000 Act”) (whereby an applicant is protected from an adverse costs finding) applies to all grounds in proceedings challenging decisions in the context of environmental protection.  In the UK however, applicants can still be liable for costs.  While the UK, similar to Ireland, is also a party to the Aarhus Convention (which requires that review procedures be ‘not prohibitively expensive’) the UK operates a costs cap for claims that fall under the Aarhus Convention’s remit at a maximum liability for claimants of £10,000.  A court can vary or remove the limits on the maximum costs liable. 

Critical Infrastructure Bill

As expected, the Plan sets out an Action (Action 2) to enact legislation to accelerate critical infrastructure and to provide for emergency powers. This legislation (entitled the Critical Infrastructure Bill) will create a legal obligation for State bodies to recognise and accelerate key projects through planning, licensing and other consenting stages.  These ‘key projects’ will be set out in a critical infrastructure projects list.  Further, and as anticipated, legislation will be developed incorporating emergency provisions that will allow the Government to speed up delivery of specific critical infrastructure in emergencies.

Plugging Legislative Gaps

Under Action 3 (Implement Other Targeted Legislative Reforms) the focus is plugging perceived legislative gaps including, for example, revisions to relevant legislation to apply the new planning processes contained in the 2024 Act to road and transport projects, and transfer of approval of all CPO applications to An Coimisiún Pleanála (“ACP”) and advancing impactful CPO reform.  While the devil will be in the detail, these reforms, in principle at least, would in our view be beneficial in navigating the often intricate and convoluted consenting and regulatory processes for approval of many projects.     

Reduce Excessive Regulation

The focus of Action 4 is on stripping away excessive regulation with respect to Appropriate Assessment and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).  In this regard the Plan notes that increases in the threshold at which EIA is required for projects will be pursued.   The thresholds for EIA are set by the EIA Directive, and therefore in pursuing any reform in this area, the Government are constrained by the parameters of the thresholds already set out in the EIA Directive.  However, we assume that the focus here will be on circumstances where Ireland’s threshold for triggering a mandatory EIA is lower than what is set out in the EIA Directive.

Exemptions for Critical Infrastructure and Rapid Response

Action 5 looks to increase the exemption thresholds for critical infrastructure, such that infrastructure providers will be able to deploy extensions, upgrades, repairs and modernisations quickly and cost effectively, while Action 6 is all about ‘rapid response’ whereby mechanisms would be created to identify new precedents set by court judgments that are relevant to infrastructure and an assessment undertaken of potential options on how Government may wish to react to any such precedents.

Civil Reform Bill

The final action under this Pillar, Action 7, is to enact a Civil Reform Bill to legislate for judicial review.  Amongst the potential measures to be included in this bill are provisions to limit judicial reviews to the ultimate planning decision rather than “currently where every licence consent and planning condition is separately subject to judicial review”, the introduction of a test such as an assessment of the prospect of success before proceedings are allowed to proceed or perhaps replacing the concept of project delays with damages, where, rather than delaying a project, flaws are addressed retrospectively via damages.  

Pillar 2 – Regulatory Reform and Simplification

Pillar 2 of the Plan coming under focus in this briefing concentrates on regulatory reform and simplification.  Amongst the key actions under this Pillar is the development and publication of National Planning Statement for Critical Infrastructure (Action 8).  A National Planning Statement is a concept introduced by the 2024 Act which replaces the previous “section 28 guidelines” under the 2000 Act.  Depending on the content and clarity of any such National Planning Statement, it may bring welcome benefits in relation to the robustness and consistency of decision-making by planning authorities and ACP with respect to critical infrastructure.  

Action 9 proposes the establishment of a regulatory simplification unit, to lead, as its name suggests, the simplification of regulation relevant to critical infrastructure.  Action 10 proposes the introduction of a series of legislative reforms to address already identified barriers while Action 15 is to progress regulatory reforms that allow developers to deliver certain types of electricity and water infrastructure where this may result in faster or more efficient development with no degradation of standards.

The Office of the Planning Regulator is under focus in Action 16 with a review of the role and functions of the Office proposed to ensure that the Regulator’s statutory role and functions are aligned with and “resolutely focused” on supporting the Government’s housing and critical infrastructure investment plans.    

Pillar 3 – Co-ordination and Delivery Reform

Amongst the notable actions under this Pillar is the introduction of risk appetite statements by Departments and Agencies which can support a higher risk appetite for critical infrastructure decisions at the portfolio, sectoral or specific project level (Action 20), and “targeted” amendments to the Infrastructure Guidelines to speed up the progression of projects through approval processes including the removal of the External Assurance Process which provided external review of business cases (Action 23).  Reform of the Procurement Processes is mentioned in Action 25 including actively supporting the reform of the European Procurement Regulations.  

Pillar 4 – Public Acceptance

This Pillar recognises that public acceptance of the need for electrical, water and transport infrastructure development is essential for the building of a sustainable, decarbonised and successful economy.  For example, action 27 under this Pillar involves accelerating the identification and transfer of suitable State sites for critical infrastructure, while Action 30 involves establishing a “benefits realisation framework” for infrastructure projects to identify and measure the societal benefits of infrastructure projects, drawing on international best practice, such as the UK’s National Benefits Management Framework.

There is a clear sense of urgency in Government to accelerate the delivery of critical infrastructure.  The actions in this much-anticipated Plan are ambitious as is the timeline for their delivery, with the majority of actions for implementation in 2026.  What happens next will be key.  There is a clear acceptance within Government that some proposals will themselves face legal challenge, and could delay their introduction, but the Government appear undeterred.