Imelda Mannion

The bigger delays have come from a system that has been working too sequentially and that's quite fragmented.

They do.

You know, we have one approval that's required, that's then followed by the next, even where there's similarities across those regulators' requirements or across the approvals themselves.

And I think it's really important to know as well that

You know, where judicial reviews are a big threat or legal challenges is a big threat, you have a system where behaviours change.

Behaviours become really defensive and really cautious and risk averse.

And when you have regulators operating in an environment of fear, they tend to take more time to process those approvals and be very focused on the procedural issues

kind of checkpoints within those approvals rather than the outcomes itself.

We will.

And that comes back to the structure and the approach.

You know, the actions themselves are all very tangible and built into the heart of them.

There's key transparency around who's accountable for their delivery.

Every action is time bound.

The ownership sits at the highest levels in departments with the ministers and the secretary generals.

And that's a really big shift in government approach.

But this oversight framework that we're implementing will be as important.

So one part of that is that the task force will continue and we will meet monthly to oversee and challenge the progress itself.

But critically, there will also be a central coordination unit established within the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform that will be housed within the infrastructure division.

And that will track delivery, identify delays early and escalate them quickly on a day-to-day basis.

And that type of structure and accountability, I think, hasn't existed before.