{"id":656009,"date":"2026-10-16T00:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T00:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/656009\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T00:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T00:16:14","slug":"legal-profession-got-away-scot-free-from-reforms-in-wake-of-2008-crash-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/656009\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal profession \u2018got away scot-free\u2019 from reforms in wake of 2008 crash \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The State\u2019s legal profession \u201cgot away scot-free\u201d from reforms in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis and it still requires change, a member of the infrastructure taskforce has said. <\/p>\n

Speaking to the British-Irish Chamber of Commerce, Sean O\u2019Driscoll<\/a>, however, said many of the concerns he had about the threat of legal blockages to major projects have been overcome by new fast-track legislation.<\/p>\n

The legal profession \u201cis a great profession, but like every other profession, there are areas in it that need a bit of cutting up,\u201d he said, in conversation with Marc Lowry, head of growth at Azets Ireland.<\/p>\n

The number of judicial reviews being taken to challenge major projects dominated debate a year ago, though a cap has now been imposed on the legal costs that claimants are able to recoup.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrior to that, it was uncapped,\u201d said O\u2019Driscoll, the former chief executive of Glen Dimplex. \u201cWhat has happened? You guessed it \u2013 there\u2019s been a significant reduction in the number of judicial reviews that have been brought through. You\u2019ve even seen judicial reviews being withdrawn.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast week, three of the four outstanding ones on the Galway bypass were withdrawn.” <\/p>\n

Others have been withdrawn to Dublin\u2019s MetroLink<\/a> and the north Dublin drainage system.<\/p>\n

\"\"Microsoft president Brad Smith: Ireland is \u201cwell-positioned for future of AI\u201d<\/p>\n

The Critical Infrastructure Act, which brings major projects to the top of the planning and courts queue, had significant support from D\u00e1il TDs, who passed it on a vote of 132-15. O\u2019Driscoll says this offers \u201can indication of the political and public mood\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, he said the first major test of the new critical infrastructure list will come once plans get under way to build the north\/south 400kV electricity interconnector from Meath, Cavan and Monaghan, into Armagh and Tyrone.<\/p>\n

The interconnector, which is unpopular with many farmers and householders along the route, is very important, said O\u2019Driscoll. \u201cIt will enhance the security in the country. It will enable the single market. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, there are a huge number of positives, but there has been local political opposition to it. It\u2019s now on the critical infrastructure register to be fast-tracked to the very top. The utilities on both sides of the Border are ready to go. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be the big challenge. Is the political system up there when it comes to public acceptance?\u201d <\/p>\n

O\u2019Driscoll has repeatedly warned that planning delays are badly hampering the delivery of public projects. He added: \u201cWe all talk a good story when it comes to infrastructure, better roads, but none of us like disruption around us either. We all have a job to communicate that infrastructure is good for us. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we have 2.8 million people working in this country. We won\u2019t have 3.8 million people working in this country with the same level of infrastructure. So, we have to plan for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

He praised Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers<\/a> for supporting fast-tracking infrastructure. \u201cNone of this would have happened without Minister Jack Chambers,\u201d said O\u2019Driscoll. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe put his political reputation on the line. He put his career on the line, as indeed did every single member of the Cabinet. Very brave politicians did what they did. Some fantastic, brilliant civil and public servants behaved really magnificently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, he said local authorities must operate more consistently by similar rules, rather than having situations where a road engineer in one county takes a completely different view on issues to a neighbouring authority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The State\u2019s legal profession \u201cgot away scot-free\u201d from reforms in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,124489],"class_list":["post-656009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sean-o-driscoll"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656009","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=656009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}