{"id":652965,"date":"2026-10-13T01:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T01:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/652965\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T01:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T01:24:10","slug":"irelands-infrastructure-shortfalls-hit-firms-finances-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/652965\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s infrastructure shortfalls hit firms\u2019 finances \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland\u2019s infrastructure shortfalls are damaging businesses\u2019 finances by driving up costs or hindering efforts to hire workers, most managers believe.<\/p>\n

Government plans to spend \u20ac250 billion tackling gaps in the State\u2019s water, energy and transport systems, and to speed up house building.<\/p>\n

But the challenges posed by poor infrastructure are hindering business and pose a threat to growth, a survey by the Institute of Directors<\/a> (IoD), showed.<\/p>\n

More than 70 per cent of members said that deficits in housing, energy, water, transport and broadband are damaging their organisation\u2019s finances, according to the study.<\/p>\n

A third of members said the problems hinder their ability to hire or keep staff. Housing and energy are the leading causes of concern, followed by transport, the survey showed. <\/p>\n

Businessman Se\u00e1n O\u2019Driscoll, a member of the Government\u2019s Accelerating Infrastructure Taskforce, who will address the institute\u2019s conference on Tuesday, welcomed the Budget 2027 pledge to invest in the State\u2019s infrastructure.<\/p>\n

But he cautioned that the Republic still faced \u201cdeep-seated\u201d challenges when it came to completing vital infrastructure projects on time and within their budgets.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur infrastructure deficit isn\u2019t a lack of ambition or talent; it is the result of two decades of failing to plan for our own success,\u201d he said ahead of the conference.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Confusion in business about looming State rules on AIOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

O\u2019Driscoll branded as worrying business people\u2019s fears that shortfalls are hitting the finances of their companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we want to safeguard Ireland\u2019s long-term competitiveness and deliver the housing, energy, water and transport systems a growing economy requires, we need clear accountability, faster decision-making, and a willingness to accept and manage risk, rather than being paralysed by it,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n

The IoD\u2019s survey of 427 directors and managers found that more than three in four of them expected growth next year, with 37 per cent of them planning to hire staff and half intending to maintain current employment. <\/p>\n

IoD chief executive Caroline Spillane argued that Government should match managers\u2019 plans to grow by cutting the cost of doing business and lowering barriers that hold firms back.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we digest the impact of Budget 2027, it is very striking that well over half of business leaders do not feel the business provisions outlined in the previous budget last year have been able to boost competitiveness a full year on,\u201d Spillane said.<\/p>\n

About two thirds of business people do not believe that the State has become a more competitive location in which to invest since Budget 2026, the study showed.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Driscoll, a former chairman of industrial group Glen Dimplex and the Economic and Social Research Institute, will address the conference, titled Leading in Governance, in Dublin\u2019s Intercontinental Hotel.<\/p>\n

Other speakers include Kara Owen, British Ambassador to Ireland, and Prof Stephen Kinsella, economic adviser to T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Survey highlights wide gaps in pay for non-executive directorsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s infrastructure shortfalls are damaging businesses\u2019 finances by driving up costs or hindering efforts to hire workers, most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,158969,60,43],"class_list":["post-652965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-institute-of-directors","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652965","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=652965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}