Departmental Strategies
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-12
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Jack Chambers (FF), Dublin West

I agree with everything the Deputy said and I appreciate his inputs at the infrastructure committee as well. There are well-documented issues with the existing culture, which has been too risk averse, leading to delays and cost increases. It is too process driven. It is about putting a delivery culture and delivery focus first. That means increasing risk appetite, but also taking practical steps, for example, carrying out early site clearance works in advance of or in parallel with another part of the process or forward ordering of key components for critical infrastructure so we can start a project much quicker while waiting for something else to conclude.
Putting a lot of steps in parallel involves greater risk appetite if something does not happen as expected. It will come down to increasing risk appetite in multiple areas and decision points in the infrastructure lifecycle. The risk appetite statement is about us backing the public service to do this, which could have an adverse effect in a minority of projects but ultimately will yield better delivery and cut through the risk aversion which is well documented.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:56+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-12