Ireland Doesn’t Have an Infrastructure Problem. It Has an Efficiency Problem

The Government recently adopted a new Risk Appetite Statement to support speedier and more efficient delivery of Ireland’s critical infrastructure. There is now an acceptance that responsible, informed and calculated risk taking is needed in order to deliver the necessary infrastructure and growth that Ireland needs for us to be progressive, sustainable and competitive.

Risk aversion is often blamed for slow delivery. In reality, the situation is much more complex than that.

Complexity

Across the public sector, projects are increasingly required to navigate multiple hurdles such as governance structures, approvals, consultations, reporting and tick box mechanisms. Each may seem to have a legitimate and legitimate purpose, but put it all together they can create a system where progress becomes painfully slow, decision-making becomes fragmented and accountability becomes non existent.

The end result is not simply more delay and increased costs, it is simply inefficiency.

All too often, the response is to call for more funding, more staff or legislative reform. We have a tendency to blame the EU, national and local government and delivery teams, but this does not address the underlying and often real issue and that is the way we design and manage delivery.

In truth no one sets out to delay projects. The reality is that High-performing organisations and individuals- whether in the public or private sector—understand that efficiency is not about cutting corners. It is about removing unnecessary friction and non essential components.

That means asking difficult questions:

• Why does this approval process exist?
• Can decisions be made earlier?
• Are we asking multiple agencies to assess the same issue?
• Is technology being used to simplify administration or simply digitise bureaucracy?
• Are we measuring activity instead of outcomes?

It is true what Peter Drucker said “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all”.

The countries and territories that consistently deliver major infrastructure projects well are not necessarily those with the largest budgets. They are often those with the clearest governance, the simplest decision-making structures and the strongest culture of accountability.

Being less risk averse should never mean lowering standards or weakening oversight. It is not a race to the bottom.

We need to have the confidence and courage to simplify systems, empower decision-makers and trust experienced professionals to exercise informed judgement.

Efficiency and accountability are not competing objectives—they are complementary. They can exist side by side in harmony.

In truth this country has no shortage of ambition, expertise or commitment within its public or private sectors. The real challenge is creating systems that allow those strengths to flourish and grow.

If we genuinely want to accelerate the delivery of critical infrastructure, we should spend less time debating and arguing whether the public sector is too cautious and instead we should be more concerned that our systems are preventing people delivering more time asking a fundamental question:

The greatest opportunity we have now is not simply to take more risk, it’s to become dramatically more efficient.

Guest post by Tom Gilligan, founder of EfficiencyDoctors. Tom founded Efficiency Doctors to bring a disciplined, results-driven approach from his work in the public sector, to a wider audience — turning bureaucratic excellence, accountability and delivery into a real competitive advantage.