{"id":537038,"date":"2026-07-07T06:57:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T06:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/537038\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T06:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T06:57:11","slug":"civil-servants-will-be-permitted-to-take-risks-to-speed-up-delivery-of-homes-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/537038\/","title":{"rendered":"Civil servants will be permitted to take risks to speed up delivery of homes \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Civil servants and other public service decision makers will be supported in taking greater risks <\/a>as part of efforts to speed up the building of more homes and infrastructure. <\/p>\n

Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers <\/a>is expected to brief colleagues on a new risk-appetite statement for critical infrastructure when the Cabinet meets today.<\/p>\n

The purchase of land before the final approval of a project and the acceptance of the risk of litigation in a project \u2013 provided there is strong governance in place \u2013 are examples of greater risk which would be tolerated under the new guidelines. <\/p>\n

It comes in response to concerns raised about a culture of risk aversion <\/a>having emerged across the public sector, driven largely by concerns regarding legal challenges, planning and consenting complexity, reputational risk, and cost escalation.<\/p>\n

There is a view within Government <\/a>that excessive caution is contributing to higher costs and slower delivery of critical infrastructure, particularly in sectors such as water, transport and energy.<\/p>\n

A report by the Accelerating Infrastructure Taskforce found that delivery timelines for energy and transport projects have doubled over the past two decades.<\/p>\n

Chambers is expected to tell Ministers the new approach to risk recognises that, in some cases, investments may be made that do not ultimately proceed or do not deliver all intended benefits, but this may still be justified if it supports faster delivery.<\/p>\n

The risk appetite statement <\/a>is understood to commit to supporting officials who take a more balanced and proportionate approach to risk in pursuit of faster delivery of critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Under the plans, Government departments, agencies and regulators with responsibility for the delivery of water, transport and energy infrastructure will be required to prepare their own sectoral risk appetite statements.<\/p>\n

Separately, Ministers are being urged <\/a>to increase the recruitment of public service apprentices after a target of filling 750 roles annually by last year was not met.<\/p>\n

Minister for Higher Education James Lawless <\/a>is expected to update the Government on the conclusion of the Public Service Apprenticeship Plan (2023\u20132025) and the next phase of apprenticeship expansion.<\/p>\n

There was a 50 per cent growth in the number of people taking up apprenticeships during the years covered by the plan, but the 566 apprenticeships last year fell short of the 750 target. <\/p>\n

Lawless is understood to have written to all senior Ministers seeking renewed efforts to increase apprentice recruitment in their areas of responsibility.<\/p>\n

There are some 87 different types of apprenticeships available, with three new ones in business and operations, social care and paramedicine announced this year. <\/p>\n

\"\"Aughinish Alumina is proving to be a real diplomatic headache<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton <\/a>is expected to bring a memo to Cabinet on the establishment of a forum on inclusive education for students with special educational needs.<\/p>\n

The forum will be independently chaired and will include representatives from organisations representing people with disabilities, advocacy groups, education stakeholders, senior Government officials and external experts. <\/p>\n

It is designed to develop understanding and consensus on priorities and practical actions required to realise inclusive education for children with special needs at all levels of the school system.<\/p>\n

Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke will bring Enterprise Ireland\u2019s 2025 annual report to Cabinet. It shows that exports by the agency\u2019s client companies reached almost \u20ac38.86 billion last year, up from \u20ac36.75 billion in 2024. <\/p>\n

Some \u20ac7.34 billion of the exports last year were to the US and Canada combined, up slightly on the \u20ac7.3 billion total recorded in 2024. Burke is expected to tell colleagues that this shows resilience in the export sector, given the challenges presented by the introduction of US tariffs last year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Civil servants and other public service decision makers will be supported in taking greater risks as part of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,7038,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-537038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-irish-politics","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}