The Taoiseach has said the next Fine Gael election manifesto will include plans for Ireland to have its own dedicated Department of Infrastructure.
In a speech at the McGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, Simon Harris said that a new department is needed to allow Ireland to build major capital projects.
Mr Harris was the first senior minister in the Department of Further and Higher Education and said that he knows what it’s like to set up a new department and “the energy, impetus and focus it can bring to a sector”.
Mr Harris said that major infrastructure projects will be needed to tackle the “problems of climate change, energy, water, housing, healthcare, education, transport, and more”.
“All of them can be solved by a dedicated department whose role it is to prosecute the delivery of these projects, large and small, for our State. This will be a key manifesto pledge for Fine Gael on which we will seek a mandate at the next election.
“Led by a cabinet minister, staffed by experts with long-term goals and resourcing that is stable, thanks to the prudent work of my colleagues in government, a Department of Infrastructure could deliver the Ireland of 2040 and 2050 in a joined-up way.
“For example, I hear from businesses how water projects impact road and rail projects, which impact housing delivery, and so on. Let’s get them fixed together.”
Mr Harris said that a Department of Infrastructure could be “a pragmatic step toward a new Ireland”.
He said that Ireland has “excellent models around the world to learn from”, naming Australia’s Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications; Canada’s Ministry of Housing, Infrastructure, and Communities; the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management in the Netherlands, and Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure.
“There is a need to unify the provision of infrastructure in this country. I believe this must be a priority for the next government,” he said. Mr Harris said that future generations would not forgive this generation of government if it did not deliver “pragmatic leadership” on major projects.
“I believe in bringing people with us, by speaking truthfully about what we are doing and why, and communicating more effectively about our greatest challenges. I believe that by building trust we can inspire collective action and transform our world.”
Elsewhere in the speech, Mr Harris pledged that Ireland’s workers “will not be left behind” by the digital revolution.
“The first industrial revolution left many workers, businesses, and indeed entire cities behind. I pledge to you Ireland’s workers and businesses will not be left behind by this revolution.
“I see the anxiety technological changes can bring to our workers. I want to use the powers of this office and the intellectual resources we have throughout the country to ensure we remain at the forefront of changes in energy generation, idea generation, and computing power.”
Mr Harris was speaking during a session entitled “On The Brink” and said that there was hope despite the problems facing the world. “We seem to be perpetually on the brink of some new global crisis, some new catastrophe or conflict.
“However, going back to recent events in the US, the glimmer of hope represented by a more moderate and united initial response than we might have expected, tells us that the view from the brink does not always have to be the abyss.”