Ireland’s unnecessary planning regulations for Infrastructure

Tue 03 Dec - Adam Ross - Transport Planner at Metro Dublin

When it comes to urban planning, Ireland’s capital, Dublin, finds itself at a frustrating crossroads. Despite the pressing need for transformative infrastructure projects, the city’s planning and regulatory environment has become a major bottleneck. Although often motivated by noble intentions, these cumbersome processes are delaying vital developments such as the Metrolink, housing projects, and Ireland’s National Children’s Hospital.

Ireland's National Children's Hospital

​As well as these, there are shelved transport projects such as Dart Underground which would have provided a connection to the Dart to Heuston Station, and Metro West, which would have provided a vital suburb to suburb metro line around Dublin’s M50 motorway. Hundreds of millions of euros have been spent on the planning of these projects and it is a massive waste that they’re either not being built or being delayed. The struggles of transport infrastructure—especially the Metrolink—highlight the stark contrast between Dublin’s overly cautious approach and the more decisive action seen in cities like Madrid and Paris.

A Maze of Regulations
Dublin’s planning framework is weighed down by extensive assessments, public consultations, and bureaucratic hurdles. Take the government's Metrolink project, for instance. Originally proposed decades ago, this much-needed metro system remains stuck in the planning and consultation process. The latest public consultation which opened in August, while providing an outlet for citizens to voice concerns, also underscores a deeper issue: an obsessive focus on achieving universal satisfaction in a city with nearly two million residents. In other words, all these long consultation periods are just a waste of time when this time could be spent actually building the line. While inclusivity and transparency are important, this exhaustive process has resulted in unnecessary delays, ballooning costs, and uncertainty about whether Dublin will ever see a fully functional metro system.

Metrolink Map

​Similarly, the development of dedicated bus lanes for Busconnects and other public transport initiatives faces prolonged scrutiny and pushback. These projects, designed to improve urban mobility and reduce congestion, frequently get bogged down in debates and objections. The end result? Dublin remains stuck with inadequate public transport options, further exacerbating traffic woes and environmental concerns with years remaining just for these basic infrastructure improvements to come into operation.

Key Bus Corridors Map for Busconnects

How the Planning Process Works in Ireland
The planning process in Ireland, as outlined by the Office of the Planning Regulator, highlights why projects like Metro Dublin face significant delays:
Submission & Public Consultation: Applications go through extensive public consultations, allowing for observations and objections.
Assessment: An inspector reviews environmental impacts, local concerns, and compliance with planning rules, compiling a report for An Bord Pleanála.
Decision & Challenges: The board reviews the report and makes a decision, often followed by judicial reviews that can add years of delays.
This process is slow due to excessive consultations, stringent assessments, frequent legal challenges, and resource constraints. Compared to streamlined systems in Paris and Madrid, Dublin’s planning framework hampers progress on vital infrastructure, underscoring the need for more efficient models.

A Tale of Two Cities: Madrid and Paris
Dublin’s predicament becomes even more glaring when compared to Madrid and Paris. Both cities have demonstrated that ambitious infrastructure projects can be completed without sacrificing public interest or accountability. Madrid, for example, has built one of Europe’s most expansive metro networks, with 293km of total metro length and many kilometres of new lines constructed in a fraction of the time Dublin has spent deliberating on the 18.8km Metrolink project.  In the early 2000's, Madrid built an impressive 120 km of new metro lines, including the 41 km MetroSur line (line 12), completing the ambitious project in just four years for a fraction of the global cost per kilometre compared to the planned 18.8km Metrolink line between Dublin city and Swords via the airport which is expected to take at least 10 years to complete. The Spanish capital achieved this by streamlining planning processes, setting clear priorities, and adhering to strict yet practical regulatory frameworks.

Madrid Metro Line 12 Map

​Paris offers another compelling example. The Grand Paris Express, an ambitious 200km metro expansion project, is progressing at an impressive pace. While regulations are firmly in place to ensure safety, environmental standards, and public engagement, the process is designed to facilitate action rather than stifle it. Paris’s ability to balance consultation with execution stands in stark contrast to Dublin’s endless rounds of debates and revisions.

Grand Paris Express Map

The Cost of Inaction
The consequences of Dublin’s overregulation are profound. Beyond the obvious delays and cost overruns, the city’s inability to deliver on key projects undermines public trust and stymies economic growth. A functional metro system would not only alleviate Dublin’s notorious traffic congestion but also contribute to a more sustainable and connected urban environment. Dedicated bus lanes, similarly, could transform the daily commute for thousands, reducing travel times and emissions.

The National Children’s Hospital—another project hamstrung by planning issues—illustrates how excessive regulation can lead to spiralling costs and prolonged construction timelines. This project began construction in 2016, and not only is it still not complete, but it has ended up costing five times the amount a project like that should cost. While the hospital is not directly linked to transport infrastructure, its challenges highlight a systemic issue in Ireland’s approach to large-scale projects.

Shelved Transport Projects
Dart Underground: As mentioned previously, two vital transport projects have been either cancelled or shelved by the government and planning bord, which are Dart Underground and Metro West. Originally proposed in 1972, Dart Underground would have provided a much-needed rail link between Clontarf Road Dart station and Heuston Station, essentially putting the final piece of Dublin’s commuter rail network together. However, the project has been delayed and ultimately shelved after decades of planning and assessments. Despite costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of euros in planning, design, and environmental evaluations, no construction ever began. So that’s 40 to 50 years of planning and money all out the window. This outcome highlights the inefficiency of Ireland’s regulatory environment, where prolonged deliberation and political indecision often undermine progress. The funds wasted on DART Underground could have been directed towards actual construction of transport infrastructure, underscoring the urgent need for reform in Dublin’s planning processes.

Dart Underground Map

Metro West: This project, another shelved initiative, exemplifies how Dublin’s planning inefficiencies have stifled critical infrastructure development. Intended to provide a much-needed orbital metro line to relieve pressure on the heavily congested M50 motorway, Metro West was suspended indefinitely after years of planning. The project was anticipated to start construction around 2015, with an estimated timeline of five to seven years for completion, placing its potential operational start date around 2022 at the earliest. However, the project was postponed indefinitely in 2011 due to financial constraints during the post-recession austerity period. The project also incurred significant costs in feasibility studies and route assessments, only to be abandoned due to bureaucratic delays and shifting priorities. This failure not only wasted public funds but also missed an opportunity to enhance Dublin’s transport network and reduce dependency on car travel on a motorway that sees over 145,000 cars a day per direction often travelling at a snail’s pace with no other transport alternatives to get from suburb to suburb within Dublin. Reforming the planning process is essential to prevent similar outcomes in future projects.

Metro West Map (Yellow Line to the left)

Dart Plus Planning Process
In March 2023, a railway order application was lodged to An Bord Pleanála to extend the DART network from Hazelhatch & Celbridge to Heuston Station and the South city via Phoenix Park Tunnel (Dart Plus Southwest). This application was only just approved in November 2024, and construction is anticipated to begin in 2026. This means that the railway order took almost two years just to get approved, and another year to even begin construction, so three years of valuable time is spent on just waiting for construction to be given the green light to begin. And this isn’t even to build any new railways, just electrify part of the existing railways. This is the same length of time it took to extend Line 10 of the Madrid metro by 36km, which further demonstrates Madrid’s ability to plan and complete huge infrastructure projects compared to Dublin. Furthermore, Dart Plus West has been approved (apart from the depot at Maynooth), and Coastal North and Coastal South are yet to be fully approved by the Bord, which is will likely all take around the same amount of planning time as South West.

Dart Plus Southwest Map

A Call for Pragmatism
The Metro Dublin project aims to deliver an ambitious 95 km of new and upgraded track and six new metro lines far more cost effectively than Metrolink by 2032, marking a transformative step for the city’s transport infrastructure. Planners are set to adopt the efficient construction and planning techniques pioneered in Paris and Madrid, ensuring streamlined processes and faster execution. This approach is expected to cut through the delays that have plagued past projects, providing Dublin with a modern, high-capacity metro network that aligns with international best practices compared to the painfully slow and unambitious planning of the government’s single Metrolink line.

Metro Dublin Planning and Construction Process
The Metro Dublin project planning and construction process will ensure the lines are completed on time and within budget by 2032 compared to Metrolink and Dart Plus. Each of the six metro lines in the Metro Dublin project will be broken up into three sections which will be put out to tender, and each contract will be given to different companies so that no company is working on the same line. For example, one developer may work on section 1 on line 2 and section 3 on line 5. Each of these lines and sections will be built simultaneously as to increase competition among each company, making sure they stick within the deadlines that will see the completion of all the lines on time. When the plan for the lines is being looked over, anything that isn’t absolutely necessary will be cut out to speed up the process while also ensuring sufficient safety of construction and operations. 

Metro Dublin Map 2032

Overall, Dublin’s planners and policymakers must embrace a more pragmatic mindset. Streamlining regulations and focusing on execution should take precedence over the impossible goal of satisfying every stakeholder. In a city of two million people, it is simply not feasible to address every individual concern without jeopardizing progress. Public consultation is essential, but it should not come at the expense of timely action.

Looking to Madrid and Paris, especially Madrid lines 10 and 12 and Grand Paris Express, Dublin can learn that bold decisions and efficient planning can coexist with accountability and inclusivity. By prioritizing the greater good and adopting a “just do it” approach, Dublin can finally begin to realize its potential as a modern, connected city.

The time for long and unnecessary planning regulations in Dublin has passed; the time for action and the construction of Metro Dublin and other infrastructure projects is now.