A Look at the Latest Updates to Ireland’s Infrastructure Delivery Framework
The Government’s Accelerating Infrastructure – Report and Action Plan, recently published, sets out the most significant transformation of Ireland’s planning and infrastructure processes in over a decade. Its goal is clear: reduce delays, streamline approvals, and bring greater predictability to the delivery of critical national projects across housing, transport, water, energy and public services.
For architects, planners and multidisciplinary design teams, this shift marks a decisive new reality. Projects will now move through tighter, more structured timeframes, supported by judicial reform, regulatory simplification, enhanced coordination between agencies, and an emphasis on public acceptance.
The question for our industry is not simply how these reforms change project delivery – but how our design approach must evolve to meet the pace and certainty that Ireland now demands.
Why Certainty Matters More Than Ever
Historically, project design in Ireland has often unfolded within unpredictable planning windows. Variability in decision timelines, changes in policy interpretation, and multi-stage environmental assessment processes have all created a landscape where uncertainty was the norm.
The new Action Plan aims to change that through:
- A strengthened and modernised judicial review process
- Clearer, more consistent national planning statements
- Regulatory simplification across agencies
- Aligned planning, funding, and coordination pathways
- Greater visibility of infrastructure pipelines
- A reinforced mandate for public engagement
As timeframes become more structured and more compressed, the design process must become more anticipatory, integrated and data-driven.
Five Ways Architecture Must Adapt
1. Front-Loaded Design and Assessment
Under tighter planning windows, issues that might previously have been resolved later in the process must now be interrogated early.
This means:
- Earlier environmental and statutory assessments
- Early integration of engineering, planning, and cost expertise
- Pre-emptive alignment with national statements and emerging precedents
Design teams must enter planning with solutions already tested, modelled and evidenced – not assumptions.
2. Greater Interdisciplinary Integration
The Action Plan places heavy emphasis on coordination and delivery reform. Architects must therefore lead design teams in a way that prevents fragmentation.
At FHP, we see multidisciplinary collaboration not as a process step, but as a design philosophy – where architects, planners, urban designers, engineers and project managers work within a single coordinated framework from day one.
Integrated teams reduce:
- Design rework
- Conflicting interpretations
- Timeline slippage caused by slow inter-agency responses
3. Scenario Planning and Digital Simulation
Planning authorities will increasingly expect:
- Precise modelling of impacts
- Transparent visuals
- Data-backed assessments
- BIM outputs that align with regulatory pathways
Digital tools now play a central role in meeting shortened approval windows. The more evidence-driven the submission, the faster authorities can engage, assess and decide.
4. Robust Stakeholder and Public Engagement
One of the four pillars of reform ‘Public Acceptance‘ elevates the role of community engagement. Strong engagement reduces objections, fosters transparency and strengthens confidence.
For architects, this means:
- Using clear, accessible visuals for non-technical audiences
- Hosting early-stage consultation workshops
- Demonstrating community benefit as part of the design narrative
In a planning environment focused on certainty, public trust becomes a core design deliverable.
5. Designing for Policy Alignment and Future-Proofing
With national planning statements and regulatory simplification guiding decisions, design teams must:
- Understand policy trajectories
- Anticipate environmental requirements
- Align with Ireland’s climate, energy and housing targets
Instead of designing for today’s rules alone, we must design for where regulation is heading. That foresight enables greater certainty in planning outcomes.
Opportunities for Better, Faster, More Sustainable Development
The Action Plan is not simply a planning reform – it is a framework for transformative infrastructure delivery. For those of us shaping Ireland’s built environment, it offers:
- Clearer expectations
- Reduced procedural ambiguity
- A mandate for innovation
- A platform for faster, more coordinated development
- A renewed emphasis on public benefit and sustainability
By evolving our design methods and embracing early integration, digital modelling, and transparent engagement, the architectural community can help turn these reforms into real, tangible outcomes for communities nationwide.
Designing for certainty is not about limiting creativity; it is about enabling it. When planning timeframes become clearer and more reliable, design teams can innovate with confidence, clients can invest with clarity and communities can benefit sooner from essential infrastructure.
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Fewer Harrington & Partners is an Irish Architects Practice with offices in Waterford, Dublin and across the world.
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