eolas magazine issue 62 by bmf business services

Informing Ireland’s decision-makers...

Creating better societies AWS’ Mark Finlay PENDPDR Minister Paschal Donohoe TD provides an update on NDP delivery

Oireachtas Service’s

Ambassador of the

Rosemary Keogh

State of Palestine

reflects on her new

to Ireland

corporate and

Jilan Wahba

members’ services

Abdalmajid discusses

role

the Gaza war

Artificial intelligence • Infrastructure and construction • Retrofitting

issue 62 Mar/Apr 24 €4.95

Public Procurement Conference 2024 Thursday 14 March • Clontarf Castle Hotel, Dublin

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An eolas event

Digital

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The Irish State spends approximately €18.5 billion every year on goods, services and works. Of this spending, 92 per cent remains in Ireland and 50 per cent is spent with SMEs. Across the EU, public procurement represents a significant proportion of total procurement. It is a useful tool for achieving policy objectives and can have many societal benefits including spending efficiency, improving well-being, working to deliver carbon net zero and promoting ethical and resilient supply chains. The Public Procurement Conference 2024 will once again bring together key stakeholders from across the Irish procurement sector to discuss the latest developments and their implications for your procurement strategy.

Speakers include: David O’Sullivan Assistant Secretary Office of Government Procurement John Coyne Director of Commercial and Procurement Welsh Government John Swords National Director of Procurement Health Service Executive Eileen Torres Morales Research Associate Stockholm Environment Institute Paul Roulston Business Development Capture Manager AWS Sinead Leonard Chief Procurement Officer Iarnród Éireann

Philip Gurnett Head of Sourcing Education & Director of Education Procurement Service Department of Education Maggie Farrell Strategic Supply Management, Faculty of Business TU Dublin Conor O’Regan Chief Procurement Officer ESB

Norman Jackson Senior Projects and Procurement Advisor The Housing Agency Aidan Sweeney Head of Enterprise & Regulatory Affairs Ibec

Key issues examined include: 4

Policy update

Procurement across the health sector

Green public procurement

Best practice local government procurement

Decarbonising supply chains

Procuring for education

Cloud procurement

Creating social value in procurement

Procurement in the housing sector

Collaborative procurement across public services

Attaining social and economic benefit from public purchasing

Best practice: Case studies from outside Ireland

To register... By phone 01 661 3755

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eolas issue 62 Mar/Apr 2024 Digital

Events

Publications

Editorial Ciarán Galway, Editor ciaran.galway@eolasmagazine.ie

Now dawns the age of AI... It is possible that human labour is on the road to obsolescence. While not a living organism, our emerging competitor is set to be – paraphrasing Daft Punk – smarter, better, faster, stronger. Variously, it is known as artificial general intelligence (AGI), superintelligent AI, or strong AI. Today, existing AIs, including GenAI which incorporates large language model chatbots, such as ChatGPT, are defined as artificial narrow intelligence (ANI) or weak AI. The rest is theoretical but given that “the development of AI is as

Odrán Waldron, Deputy Editor odran.waldron@eolasmagazine.ie David Whelan david.whelan@eolasmagazine.ie Fiona McCarthy fiona.mccarthy@eolasmagazine.ie Joshua Murray joshua.murray@eolasmagazine.ie Advertising Sam Tobin sam.tobin@eolasmagazine.ie

fundamental as the creation of the microprocessor”, as per Bill Gates, it will eventually evolve.

Design

Unease at the obvious risks of a sentient AI supplanting human

Gareth Duffy, Head of Design gareth.duffy@eolasmagazine.ie

roles and even determining that its self-interest conflicts with that of humanity has resulted in several high-profile resignations, such as ‘The Godfather of AI’, Geoffrey Hinton. However, this is counterbalanced by the potential of AI to improve our existence, complement existing roles, and reduce global inequities. National and multinational rulebooks that govern AI will play an integral role in ensuring this balance is advantageous. Globally, the EU’s recently endorsed AI Act – which awaits European Parliament approval – is the first attempt to delineate risks

Jamie Hogan jamie.hogan@eolasmagazine.ie Events Lynda Millar lynda.millar@eolasmagazine.ie Become a subscriber! Annual subscriptions: €15.00 + €5.00 P&P

individual while encouraging innovation.

Contact: Sharon Morrison Email: subscriptions@eolasmagazine.ie Online: www.eolasmagazine.ie

Effective regulation hinges on policymakers’ cognisance of the

eolas Magazine

technology keeping pace with its rapid evolution and subjective

Owen McQuade, Publisher owen.mcquade@eolasmagazine.ie

associated with the technology, and simultaneously protect the

use. Getting it right first time, therefore, will prove challenging. Compare AI to the printing press; the complexity of establishing

bmf Business Services

Clifton House Lower Fitzwilliam Street Dublin, D02 XT91

effective

regulatory

environment

should

not

underestimated. This is a theme explored in this issue’s interview with Minister of State with responsibility for Digital Dara Calleary TD in which he

Tel: 01 661 3755 Web: www.eolasmagazine.ie X: @eolasmagazine

advocates for AI’s labour augmenting role and calls for legislators to engage with AI policy and its potential impact beyond elections. This issue also marks the departure of eolas Magazine’s Deputy Editor, Odrán Waldron, for pastures new. Go néirí an bóthar leat, a chara. Ciarán Galway

www.eolasmagazine.ie

FSC® is an acronym for the Forest Stewardship Council®, which is an independent, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization that was established to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests. The FSC® system provides an assurance that products such as wood and paper have been harvested in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. The FSC’s Chain of Custody certification provides a way in which the material can be tracked from the certified initial source through the manufacturing process to the end user and other controlled sources.

Digital

Events

Publications

contents

04 08 37

Matters arising

Cúpla focal

Issues 08 12

Climate Action Plan 2024 Cover story: AWS’ Mark Finlay on creating better societies Hosted by

Round table discussion: Powering the digital workplace in the energy sector

24 34

Interview: Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Ireland, Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid Better Public Services: Embedding design in the public service

Artificial Intelligence 38 44 48 64

Interview: Minister of State for Digital, Dara Calleary TD on trustworthy, person-centred, and ethical AI AI: Here for Good: A national AI strategy Sponsored by ‘World’s first’ AI regulation agreed at European level In focus: AI Advisory Council

126

38 67

120

Infrastructure and construction 68 72 78 106

168 Sponsored by

PENDPDR Minister Paschal Donohoe TD discusses capital funding levels Budget 2024: Capital expenditure ESRI’s Muireann Lynch on the cost of planning and regulatory delays for the energy system Infrastructure Guidelines: Public investment evaluation

119 Retrofitting 120 126 130

Barry Quinlan, Assistant Secretary, DECC outlines progress on the National Retrofit Plan UCD’s Lisa Ryan on modelling household decisions to adopt heat pumps Estate Manager Vincent Brennan outlines the HSE’s retrofitting journey

148 Europe 148

Analysis: European elections 2024

151 Public affairs 152 156 160 166 168

Interview: Houses of the Oireachtas Director of Corporate and Members’ Services Rosemary Keogh Interview: Richard Boyd Barrett TD Obituary: Former Taoiseach John Bruton Trade union desk: What should be done about the pension age? Back page: Strategic opportunity for reform of public construction contracts

67 119 148 151

matters arising

H E A LT H

‘No blame approach’ for Covid-19 inquiry The Government has announced that an inquiry into Covid-19 will take place, but that a ‘no blame approach’ will be adopted in order to prevent a “UK-style” Covid inquiry from taking place. The draft plan for the Covid-19 inquiry says it will take an approach which is “independent, multi-disciplinary, objective and fair and should involve a no blame approach”. The inquiry will have an expert-led review panel known as an ‘Independent Pandemic Evaluation’ and will not be a statutory inquiry with power to compel witnesses or papers.

The review will examine response from the whole-of-government to the Covid-19 pandemic, including health system preparedness, economic impact, social policy, and equity, and will further include an independent nursing home module. The HSE’s Health Protection Surveillance Unit states that just under 9,600 people have died from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic in February 2020. Following the conclusion of submissions and the prior to the releasing of a report, the inquiry will report to the Taoiseach on an as-of-yet unspecified date.

T R A N S P O RT

Disincentivising private cars through central Dublin Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan TD has said that a ban on private car journeys in the centre of Dublin will be in place by August 2024. Ryan was speaking following the presentation of the Dublin City Centre Transport Plan to councillors on 7 February 2024. In the plan, Dublin City Council claims that two-thirds of cars which travel through the city centre are ‘passing through’, rather than travelling to or from the city centre. The plan is to limit parts of the north and south quays to public transport, and to introduce a series of civic plazas and restrictions where private traffic will be allowed to turn. The plan does not aim to prevent motorists from accessing the city centre, rather proposing an end to “dominance of cars on the city’s streets”, while retaining routes to

eolas matters

businesses and car parks. The plan proposes making streets including Parliament Street traffic-free, and the creation of new civic plazas at the Custom House and at Lincoln Place near Trinity College. Minister Ryan said the plan, which will receive €290 million in funding, will have a “transformative effect” on life in Dublin. “People will see a transformation this August [2024] when we take the through traffic out of the city centre. That is going to make a huge change in Dublin… We will see a tipping point where we will see a large increase in cycling and walking as a mainstream form of transport for our city.”

matters arising

P U B L I C A F FA I R S

January 2024 saw Ireland play host to the Chinese Premier, Li Qiang, who is the second most senior political figure in the Chinese Government. The trip to Ireland is Qiang’s only visit to a European state apart from that to Davos, Switzerland, to speak at the World Economic Forum. Financial Times foreign policy experts have stated that the trip was designed to “encourage Ireland to maintain close ties and keep semiconductor sales flowing at a time when larger EU states are taking a harder stance on Beijing”. Qiang was greeted at Dublin Airport by Environment Minister Eamon Ryan TD, before he then met with the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar TD, with whom he agreed to end a Chinese ban on

Credit: X/Chinese Embassy

Chinese Premier hails Irish ‘friendship and cooperation’ beef imported from Ireland which had been in place since November 2023.

Varadkar and President Michael D Higgins both raised human rights with the Chinese premier, as the United Nations has accused China of “serious human rights violations” of its Turkic Muslim minority in the Xinjiang Autonomous Province. Speaking at a “working lunch” with the Taoiseach, Qiang said that there is “huge potential” for “longstanding friendship and cooperation” between China and Ireland. The Chinese embassy in Dublin said in a statement that China and Ireland had been “setting a good example of friendly coexistence and win-win cooperation”.

WAT E R

Government breaching EU water standards The Government has failed to ensure that all of its water meets EU standards, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled. Ireland had been taken to court by the European Commission for allegedly failing to ensure that trihalomethanes (THMs) in drinking water did not exceed the minimum values outlined in the Drinking Water Directive.

minimum standard, and that it has failed to adopt orders to restore drinking water quality “as quickly as possible”. The Commission had not given any policy direction as to how standards should be upheld, arguing in a previous judgement that this was a matter for the Government of Ireland to determine.

THMs are chemical compounds often found in drinking water, particularly water treatment systems that use chlorine to remove bacteria and contaminants.

An ECJ statement reads: “By failing to do so as quickly as possible, the Court finds that Ireland did not ensure that the time-period during which it exceeded the minimum value of THM concentrations in its drinking water was as short as possible.”

The Commission stated that the Irish Government failed to adopt necessary measures to be compliant with the Directive in that THMs were above the specified

The ECJ ruled that Ireland had failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 4 of the Safe Drinking Water Directive.

eolas matters

matters arising

P U B L I C A F FA I R S

New Secretary General appointed Feargal Ó Coigligh has been appointed

Before that, Ó Coigligh was Assistant

of government policy. Each of the 18

as the new Secretary General of the

Secretary for Culture and Arts from

government departments have a

Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts,

2015 to 2018, where he oversaw the

secretary general, all of whom are

Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

Decade of Centenaries including the

answerable to their respective minister.

Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme.

Ó Coigligh was previously an Assistant

Prior to that, he had responsibility for

Secretary in the Department of

Heritage policy, including the National

Housing, Local Government and Heritage, with responsibility for housing

Parks and Wildlife Service.

The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media has a broad range of functions relating to tourism, arts and culture, the national

policy and coordinating Housing for All.

Secretaries general are the head of a

cultural institutions, film, media, sport

Prior to that he had responsibility for

department at civil service level and

and the Irish language and the

water services, including Uisce Éireann.

are responsible for the implementation

Gaeltacht.

P U B L I C A F FA I R S

Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O’Neill has become the first nationalist to become the head of government in the North. The DUP had been boycotting the Northern Ireland Assembly over what it claimed was in protest against a “border in the Irish Sea”, with Paul Given MLA having resigned as First Minister in February 2022. In the subsequent Assembly election in May 2022, Sinn Féin emerged as the largest party for the first time following a successful election campaign where O’Neill pledged to be a “First Minister for all”. The DUP experienced an electoral backlash

eolas matters

Credit: Sinn Féin

Michelle O’Neill MLA becomes first nationalist First Minister from some hardline unionist voters who opted for the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) party over the implementation of post-Brexit trading arrangements which necessitate checks on goods travelling between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

In the North, although the largest party in the Executive assumes the role of First Minister, the Executive Office has a joint leadership where the First Minister and deputy First Minister are joint leaders of the devolved institutions.

The DUP has returned to government after two years of absence following the publication of the Safeguarding the Union policy paper by the UK government, heavy in unionist friendly rhetoric, the paper, which reframes some of the mechanisms of the Protocol, but keeps the conditions of the ‘sea border’ in place.

The DUP has nominated Emma LittlePengelly MLA as the first unionist deputy First Minister, a barrister and former Westminster MP in south Belfast who did not stand in the 2022 election, being coopted into the Assembly after DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson MP opted to remain a Westminster MP.

cúpla focal “They have become blinded by rage...” Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD on the Israeli invasion and siege of Rafah, Gaza, Palestine

“The first time we will have a Sinn Féin First Minister, a nationalist first minister, is a mark of change.” Mary Lou McDonald TD on Michelle O’Neill MLA becoming First Minister

“This is the first genocide in history where its victims are broadcasting their own destruction in real-time.” Irish lawyer Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh speaking in the International Court of Justice

“We’re not on track...” Environment Minister Eamon Ryan TD on meeting the State’s emissions targets

eolas eolas cúpla matters focal

issues eolas

Climate Action Plan 2024: Ryan admits emissions targets ‘not on track’ Although the Government says that Climate Action Plan 2024 (CAP24) “sets out the roadmap to deliver on Ireland’s climate ambition”, the report notes that, even if targeted measures outlined in previous CAPs are fully implemented, the State will still fall “significantly short” of meeting its environmental targets. The State is legally obliged to halve its emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Climate Action Plan 2024 (CAP24) outlines that estimates from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicate that Ireland’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions fell by 1.9 per cent in 2022 compared to 2021, driven by higher fuel prices, reduced use of nitrogen fertiliser, increased renewable energy, behavioural change, and regulation. In terms of progress under the Climate Action Plan framework so far, CAP24 states that: •

initial indications for 2023 show a stronger fall in emissions from electricity, agriculture, and heating;

eolas issues

•

this reduction falls short of the level of abatement required to meet national and international targets. Further, corrective actions are included in Climate Action Plan 2024 in response to this;

•

the key sources of Ireland’s overall GHG emissions in 2022 are agriculture (34.3 per cent), transport (17.1 per cent), and energy industries (14.8 per cent); and

•

Ireland has expended 47 per cent of its emissions for the first carbon budget period (2021-2025) in the budget’s first two years.

Although CAP24 is the third annual update to the Climate Action Plan, and the second in the aftermath of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (amendment) Act 2021, it has received minimal

issues eolas

LULUCF targets Theme

2030 KPI

Forestry

Afforestation rates of 8,000 kha/year

Croplands

Cover crops: 75,000 ha Straw incorporation: 85,000 ha

Grasslands

Optimal management of grassland on 450,000 ha of grassland on mineral soils Reduced management intensity of 80,000 ha of grasslands on drained organic soils

Wetlands

Rehabilitate 33,000 ha of exploited Bord na Móna peatlands Additional 30,000 ha exploited peat rehabilitated

Hedgerows

Plant 2,000km new hedgerows

Source: Climate Action Plan 2024.

coverage compared to its preceding updates, apparently due to the lack of policy updates and the pessimistic vision it paints for the State achieving its emissions reductions targets. The main update to the Climate Action Plan in this update is in the sector of land use, land use change, and forestry (LULUCF), owing to updated EU legislation which sets new requirements for the sector. However, even if all measures outlined in the LULUCF sector are met, this will not come close to meeting the State’s wider emissions reduction challenges. Although there is pessimistic reading for whether the State will meet its emissions reductions targets, there is little overall by the way of updates to the core policies that the Government is pursuing.

Land use, land use change, and forestry (LULUCF) In 2023, there was a revision to the EU legislation for LULUCF as part of the EU’s Fit for 55 package. This revision set binding LULUCF targets for Ireland. The EU legislation requires Ireland to meet a 2030 emissions reduction target and comply with a 2026-2029 carbon budget. LULUCF was not included as a sector within the State’s initial carbon budgets due to plans which were in place for the publication of a land-use strategy. Although the Government was due to publish a land-use strategy by Q4 2023, at the time of print this has not yet taken place. The 2030 distance to target for the State in the LULUCF sector is fixed at 0.626 MtCO2eq below a baseline set at the average of the 2016-2018 emissions.

The reported emissions in the LULUCF sector remain in flux as the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications indicates that its understanding of emissions and activity for this sector is still advancing. The 2018 baseline, as reported in the 2021 National Inventory Report (NIR) has in the latest 2023 report increased by 31 per cent. The most recent refinements were driven by changes in the emissions factor for forestry on peat soils. Multiple inventory refinements are scheduled for the coming decade, resulting in further fluctuations to the baseline, in parallel with current and projected emissions trends for the sector out to 2030 and beyond. The revised EU LULUCF Regulation has a two phased approach. Until 2025, old EU regulations based on the “no debit” rule (where accounted LULUCF emissions are to be compensated by an equivalent emissions removal within the sector) are largely in place. For 2026-2029, a carbon budget is set. The budget is determined by an assumed linear reduction in emissions starting from 2022. The starting point is based on average emissions from 2021, 2022, and 2023 and the end point based on the 2030 target.

Electricity CAP24 states that it will be “extremely difficult” for the electricity sector to remain within the carbon budgets outlined in previous updates to the Climate Action Plan. In spite of the limitations to the electricity sector, and the fact that Ireland’s proportion of emissions from the electricity sector is now in line with the EU average, there is little by the way of substantive changes to policies. Rather, CAP24 reiterates the importance of ensuring that previously outlined policies are implemented.

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Given that the programme of large-scale offshore wind deployment is expected to be realised towards the end of the decade, CAP24 outlines that deployment rates for onshore renewables will need to increase to match demand growth to ensure we keep electricity emissions within range of the carbon budgets. Achieving this will require significant upscaling and accelerating in current deployment of renewables, particularly onshore wind. As an example, the historical average deployment of onshore wind installed capacity connected between 2008 and 2020 inclusive was 280MW per annum from 19 projects (with an annual maximum of 612MW). To achieve the necessary emissions abatement, an approximately eight-times increase of renewable energy deployment to 2.3GW annually would be needed between 2024 and 2030. The ongoing revision of the National Planning Framework, the Renewable Electricity Spatial Planning Framework, and the implementation of the recast Renewable Energy Directive, including the mapping of Renewable Acceleration Areas, are aimed at supporting this.

Built environment In spite of the Government’s much-touted National Retrofit Plan and ambitions to introduce district heating in urban areas, fossil fuels continue to account for more than 72 per cent of energy used in the residential sector in the State. In its 2023 annual review, the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC) indicated that 45 per cent and 41 per cent of the budgets for the residential and commercial/public sectors respectively were expended in the first two years of the first carbon budgetary period, and while these sectors are aligning with their target there is still potential for further emissions reduction measures to be taken. Given that the decrease in emissions in the built environment between 2021 and 2022 was partly due to increased fossil fuel prices and a mild winter, there is a risk that the abatement associated with fossil fuel price and supply effects may not be embedded in household heat demand over the longer term, and continued emphasis on long-term energy efficient behaviours and decarbonised technologies are key.

Agriculture Although the original Climate Action Plan was targeting a reduction in emissions of 10 per cent by 2025 in the agriculture sector, CAP24 shows that, since the original

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plan was published in 2021, that there has been no progress and that agricultural emissions remain the same as they were in 2019. Although no progress has been made, CAP24 outlines the Government’s confidence that existing policies are the answer, with the Food Vision 2030 strategy and the Teagasc Marginal Abatement Cost Curve both highly touted by government. Food Vision 2030 has the objective of achieving a climate-neutral food system by 2050, with verifiable progress achieved by 2030, encompassing emissions, biodiversity, and water quality, as well as a range of other targets for forestry, fisheries, organic farming, and food waste. However, under Food Vision 2030, the only meaningful steps that have been taken so far are that a number of working groups have been established whose remit includes work to further develop options for emissions reduction in the sector. In addition, through stakeholder engagement, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications states that a major stumbling block to reduction of agriculture emissions is that a significant number of farmers believe that initiatives being pursued by government are “unfair”. CAP24 proposes “incentivising”, in an unclear manner, use of low emission feed and fertiliser. It further proposes “increasing focus on low methane traits within animal breeding programmes”, with expansion of data retention promoted as “key” to enabling methane reductions. Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland the day after the publication of Climate Action Plan 2024, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications Eamon Ryan TD admitted that the Government is “not on track” to meet its emissions reductions targets. Minister Ryan further mooted the prospect of changing the way climate policy is updated on an annual basis, explaining: “The science of climate emissions and land use is really complicated and that baseline of what the actual emissions are keeps changing. “One of the main items in the plan… is recognising a lot of the forestry we planted back 30 and 40 years ago actually was not in the right location. “It was in very peaty soils. So, we are going to have to change and adapt our whole forestry industry towards a better system.”

issues eolas

Credit: Derek Speirs

Pay rise agreed for public sector workers

Public sector workers are to receive what amounts to an average of a 10.25 per cent pay rise over the next two years, following the conclusion of negotiations between the Government and stakeholders at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). Under the agreement, it is estimated that 385,000 public sector workers will see their pay raised, including teachers, doctors, nurses, and gardaí.

achievable through negotiations at this time, and that it is the outcome of a challenging negotiations process,” Callinan said.

The deal is a compromise between the Government, which had originally offered a pay increase of 8.5 per cent, and trade unions, which had been demanding pay increases of 12.5 per cent.

Under the terms, the first pay rise for workers will either be 2.25 per cent from their current salary, or €1,125, depending on which number is higher. This pay rise, if agreed, will be backdated to 1 January 2024.

In February 2024, the largest public sector union, Fórsa, will ballot its members on the terms offered by the Government. Members have been encouraged to vote in favour of the terms by Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan. “The union’s executive backed the terms of the deal negotiated over the past two months, and its recommendation is based on the understanding that the pay terms represent the absolute maximum

This will be followed by a 1 per cent increase on 1 June 2024, followed by a further 1 per cent increase or €500, whichever is greater, on 1 October 2024. On 1 March 2025, there will be another 2 per cent increase, followed by a 1 per cent increase on 1 August 2025. On 1 February 2026, public servants will receive a further 1 per cent increase with a final 1 per cent taking effect on 1 June 2026.

The terms also stipulate that a new local bargaining instalment, equivalent to 1 per cent of the basic pay, will be issued on 1 September 2024. The process of reaching agreement was overseen by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). Established under Enda Kenny’s government in October 2015, the WRC is an independent state agency which chairs labour disputes and has responsibility for industrial relations. Chaired by former Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) general secretary David Begg, the WRC has an annual budget of just over €15 million. Speaking on the deal, Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform Paschal Donohoe TD said that the deal would cost the exchequer around €3.6 billion “over the next four years”, but welcomed the deal, saying: “From a national finance point of view and the competitiveness of our economy, this kind of wage growth and knowing where we stand across the next two-and-a-half years is really valuable to how we manage our economy and create an atmosphere of stability and certainty.”

eolas issues

cover story

Creating better societies Amazon Web Services (AWS) Head of Public Sector for the Republic of Ireland, Mark Finlay, talks to eolas Magazine about the cloud computing provider’s socioeconomic impact in Ireland in the context of cloud adoption as a component of public service transformation. 12

cover story

Reflecting on the journey since his appointment as AWS’ Head of Public Sector in Ireland in 2020, Finlay recalls how the Covid experience – aside from the obvious disruption and personal impact for so many – proved useful for cultivating trust between the public sector and cloud service providers, as well as illuminating the value proposition of cloud computing. Illustrating how government was able to leverage AWS cloud services during the pandemic, Finlay points to the Covid Tracker App, built by NearForm and hosted on AWS, as well as the collaboration between the Office of the Government CIO, An Garda Síochána, and the HSE. “Delivering an application in a threemonth period, and then scaling to 1.3 million users over a 36-hour timeframe, demonstrated to those organisations the agility and the scalability that AWS cloud services have to offer,” he says.

Strategic priorities While AWS is a technology organisation, the Head of Public Sector explains that rather than merely fixating on cloud computing as a technology, its strategic priorities are closely allied to the delivery of better public services and the associated ambitions established by government. “Within AWS, one of our key principles is working backwards from our customers’ ambitions. We consider government’s strategic priorities and work backwards from there. This ensures that AWS can effectively support government in implementing its strategies.” In relation to cloud computing specifically, two government ministers have made significant statements in recent times, with Minister of State Ossian Smyth TD emphasising: “Cloud computing is cheaper. It is faster to deploy, and it is more scalable than running your own server room... cloud computing should be the default option for new ICT investment. Existing systems should be reviewed to see if they can also be moved to the cloud.” Meanwhile, Minister for Finance Michael McGrath TD asserted: “Organisations should no longer decide whether to move to cloud for new or existing systems. The decision to make now is what, how, and when to move to cloud, which can offer a step change in carbon efficiency, security, and value for money.”

“Our vision is to build better societies.” Mark Finlay, Head of Public Sector, Ireland, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

“In this context, our strategy very much revolves around supporting government to deliver on these observations,” Finlay says, adding: “This includes taking a cloud-oriented approach to the delivery of all services as per Harnessing Digital: The Digital Ireland Framework, as well as ensuring that 90 per cent of applicable services are consumed online by 2030 as per Connecting Government 2030: A Digital and ICT Strategy for Ireland’s Public Service.”

Economic impact Locally, Investing. Growing. Partnering. AWS Impact in Ireland, an economic impact study produced by Indecon International Economic Consultants (Indecon), has helped demonstrate exactly how AWS generates economic and social advantages for Irish communities. The report indicates that AWS has increased economic output in the State by more than €11.4 billion since 2012, creating around €2.4 billion in additional economic output in 2022 alone. “Equipped with this report, we can now better articulate AWS’s impact in Ireland – openly and transparently – to government, and wider society,” the Head of Public Sector observes. “From an employment perspective, for instance, AWS supports an annual average of over 10,000 jobs in local communities across the State. Further to this, AWS investment has enabled over 500 homegrown suppliers to develop their operations both at home and abroad. “One great example is County Meathbased Hanley Energy. In 2009, it had three employees in Ireland, whereas today the business employs over 700 people in Ireland, North America, South Africa, and Australia. It is a fantastic story of significant growth in a relatively short time.

“Indeed, allied to AWS’ infrastructure presence here, these domestic suppliers and contractors have built their businesses while helping to develop Ireland’s cloud infrastructure ecosystem. Many of these companies have become world leaders and are now simultaneously capitalising on export opportunities in 28 countries around the globe.” For AWS, the report is also useful in emphasising the employment opportunities unlocked by data centres, particularly during the construction phase. “During construction, around 2,250 people are employed, with a typical data centre campus supporting over 250 fulltime jobs annually. This directly disproves the narrative that data centres do not create employment,” Finlay remarks. “It is great for me, as an employee of AWS, to be able to communicate this message in commercial or policy settings, but also in more informal settings, for example, with family and friends, so that they can better understand the organisation that I am part of.”

Social impact Simultaneously, AWS is cognisant of its obligation to have a positive impact on the local communities in which it operates. This includes working with local education institutions, and ensuring that courses are made available to local residents who want to upskill or reskill and move into careers relating to data centre infrastructure. For example, for seven years, AWS has partnered with the Tallaght campus of Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) on its data centre technician programme, while supporting the development of similar courses with TU Dublin’s Blanchardstown campus and the Drogheda Institute of Further Education. These programmes are designed to provide participants with opportunities to receive annual bursaries to upskill with

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cover story

“One of the barriers inhibiting the public sector moving to the cloud, according to the report, is the prevalence of traditional procurement systems, more focused on physical hardware procurement, and the need for procurement reform,” Finlay explains. “Procurement reform is one of the key operationalising tools to bring government policies to life and ensure that public sector bodies can deliver on the ambition of government. “In early 2023, it was a positive development to see the Office of Government Procurement conduct a market consultation on a proposed Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Services Contract. While it is unfortunate that that has not achieved a successful outcome, we do believe that there is a pathway towards getting a framework that works in a compliant manner for Irish public sector bodies. Continuing to engage with the Office of Government Procurement and the Irish Government in delivering that framework is an absolute priority for AWS, as well as working directly with public sector bodies to allow them deliver on their cloud transformation strategies.”

Skills capacity

the potential of a paid work placement with AWS. “The rationale is to provide local communities with pathways to access jobs in data centres, ensuring that the infrastructure generates economic advantage for both the local and national economies. The data centre technician programmes are a great example of that,” Finlay remarks.

Public sector cloud adoption As mentioned above, the Covid experience had a catalytic impact on overall public sector cloud adoption. Explaining this phenomenon, Finlay outlines: “While the basic value proposition of enhanced security and cost became better understood, AWS customers also observed the agility that cloud unlocks, as well as removing the undifferentiated, heavy lifting of data centre management and allowing them to focus on building applications.

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“Allied to this, the pandemic experience offered customers some insight into the scale of innovation available via more than 200 AWS services. For instance, the Department of Health leveraged Amazon Connect – our cloud contact centre – and deployed it in an effective, secure, and scalable manner to meet the needs of the digital Covid-19 vaccination certificates programme.”

International comparison In late 2022, Ibec published The sky is the limit: How cloud computing is the key to better public services in Ireland, a report which explores the barriers to cloud computing adoption in the public sector and seeks to assert how public sector adoption of cloud in Ireland compares with counterparts elsewhere. While acknowledging several positive example of cloud adoption in the Irish public sector, the report determined that several countries, including Canada, Australia, Germany, the UK, Greece, and Poland, have more advanced approaches to public sector cloud adoption.

Aside from procurement, public sector bodies face a cloud computing skills challenge. In seeking to leverage new technologies and services, Finlay contends, customers must ensure they have appropriate training in place. Taking a long-term view on skills, AWS has put in place training and enablement programmes, alongside learning needs assessments to identify existing skills capacity and skill gaps. “We also have education programmes in place, such as AWS re/Start, which is a free cohort-based workforce development training programme aimed at helping underrepresented and unemployed individuals to embark on a new career in cloud computing, at no cost to the learner. “Through coursework and hands-on labs, using real world scenarios, learners can gain the technical skills they need for entry to mid-level cloud roles. AWS re/Start also provides learners with professional skills training like CV and interview coaching to prepare them for employer meetings and job interviews. The programme also connects learners with potential employers,” he outlines. AWS also runs a fully funded education programme and competition called AWS

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GetIT, which is designed to inspire all 12to 14-year-old students – particularly girls and other young people from underrepresented communities – to consider a career in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In 2023, following the completion of the AWS GetIT programme curriculum, schools were invited to submit a student app concept to the state-wide AWS GetIT competition. A total of three Irish schools competed in the final held at AWS offices in Dublin. Having presented their concepts to a panel of industry judges, the 2023 winner was Coláiste Abhainn Rí, Callan, County Kilkenny; and the two runners up were Bishopstown Community School, County Cork, and Our Lady’s School, Terenure, County Dublin.

Emerging trends Asked about the emerging trends AWS is observing across the sphere of public service delivery, the Head of Public Sector identifies three. The first relates to citizen engagement, which is a key enabler of government’s digital transformation strategy. “Beyond Ireland, there are some truly amazing case studies,” Finlay indicates, elaborating: “For example, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) – which supports 33 million licenced drivers – required a contact centre transformation which would allow the organisation to become a 24/7 service as opposed to nine-to-five. “By leveraging Amazon Connect, the DMV can use live chat, social media, and other tools to engage with Californian residents, regardless of the time of day, simultaneously sieving out the more basic questions they get through the system, ensuring that employees are engaging in more meaningful conversations, and supporting residents more effectively. This has the effect of ensuring that DMV employees become more satisfied in their roles.” Meanwhile, in Ireland the Irish Refugee Council has also used Amazon Connect to roll out a contact centre solution together with TTEC Digital. “Organisations like TTEC Digital, which are a part of the AWS Partner Network, are absolutely critical; they help our customers to deliver services to citizens in areas where they may not have adequate skills capacity, including in the area of citizen engagement,” he adds.

The second trend AWS is observing relates to operational resilience. This ranges from backup and disaster recovery to full migrations of applications to AWS. Recently, the most extreme example materialised as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, whereby 15PB of data from critical databases were migrated to the AWS Cloud from 50 state bodies and 24 education institutions. The third trend is generative AI, and AWS is focused on ensuring that it is available to organisations of all sizes. As such, AWS has a fully managed service offering called Amazon Bedrock which provides a choice of several foundation models (FMs) and large language models (LLMs) from leading AI companies including Stability AI, Anthropic, Meta, and Amazon Titan via a single application programming interface (API). “We recognise that no single FM will address the needs of all customers, rather they will want different options. We also recognise that customers want to bring their own data into those models in a secure and cost-effective manner. As such, AWS offers its own custom silicon for training and inference of LLMs,” Finlay explains. One real world example of this is Swindon Borough Council in the UK, which is using Amazon Bedrock to enhance the accessibility of important public information for people with learning disabilities. “While public sector bodies are expected to provide easily accessible information for public consumption, it is necessary to also provide this information in easy read format. Making this conversion manually can cost an average of £120 (€140) for a

single page with just five lines and five images, while a document comprising five pages would take two weeks and cost £500 (€585). In this case, Swindon Borough Council can now create an accessible multi-page document for £0.07 (€0.09) per page. “This is a great example of a public service provider using AWS to make a positive difference. For us, it is vital that we engage with organisations in other jurisdictions and help them to share their knowledge with public sector bodies in Ireland. While the Ibec report illustrates that we are behind cloud adoption leaders, it means that we can learn from them, avoiding early adoption pitfalls.”

Vision Reiterating AWS’s commitment to help transform the public sector by “facilitating people, partner organisations, and the best technology to create long-term socioeconomic value”, the Head of Public Sector concludes: “Our vision is to build better societies. Sure, we have the technology available for our customers, but our absolute vision is building better societies – which are healthier, happier, safer, and more successful – for all. To help achieve this, we are supporting public service delivery by facilitating digital transformation via cloud adoption. “From my own perspective, I want to continue to help the public sector on that transformation journey. Ultimately, the Government has a target of 90 per cent of applicable public services being delivered online by 2030. That is an ambitious challenge, and my motivation is helping to achieve that.”

Profile: Mark Finlay A native of Abbeyleix, County Laois, Mark Finlay now lives in Dublin. As a bicycle commuter, the 15-minute city urban planning concept – “building a Dublin that provides the infrastructure to access services in a 15-minute timeframe” – is close to his heart. In parallel to his role with AWS, Finlay also sits on the Data Governance Board as Ibec’s representative, and later in 2024, he is putting his name forward for election to the Council of Dublin Chamber. As a self-identifying gym junkie, sport and physical activity are important to him and he exercises on a daily basis “to keep the mind on the right path”.

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Bord na Móna completes its brown to green transition

Bord na Móna's Edenderry Renewable Energy Complex.

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It has often been said: “Celebrate endings—for they precede new beginnings.” On 23 December 2023, the climate solutions and renewable energy company, Bord na Móna, completed its historic brown to green transition when the last MWh of electricity that would ever come from the burning of peat was generated at Edenderry Power Station, County Offaly. Ultimately, bringing the curtain down on a tradition that spanned over half a century of using peat in the Irish Energy Mix. A historic moment not only for Bord na Móna, but for Ireland. As peat-fired generation is now consigned to the annals of history, Bord na Móna is investing €100 million to

decarbonise the Edenderry Renewable Energy Complex. This investment has already seen the refurbishment of the solid fuel boiler, and associated fuel handling systems, to allow the plant run on 100 per cent sustainably sourced biomass, which will deliver 118MW of renewable electricity capacity to our national grid. Head of Renewable Energy for Bord na Móna, John Reilly stated: “By ending the use of peat at our Edenderry Power Station, Bord na Móna is pioneering the expansion of our climate solutions and renewable energy offering to safeguard

green energy supply for the future. The Edenderry Renewable Energy Complex is a key part of this journey, ultimately supporting delivery against Ireland’s renewable energy targets by 2030, and net zero emissions by 2050. “Our €100 million investment in Edenderry will allow Bord na Móna to continue delivering for Ireland’s energy security, as we always have, by supporting our growing portfolio of renewable energy projects that include wind, solar and in the near future hydrogen”.

The hard work and dedication of the employees in Bord na Móna has ensured the company has found a way forward that will ensure the Edenderry Renewable Energy Complex will continue to prosper, while keeping Ireland’s heartland at the centre of renewable electricity generation. Bord na Móna’s unprecedented transition from brown to green provides a tangible, hopeful example for other corners of the world. The Edenderry Renewable Energy Complex also includes a 120MW distillate fired generator that can provide flexible peaking capacity at times when the national grid comes under pressure and requires additional capacity. Bord na Móna is currently working with Gas Networks Ireland (GNI) to bring the natural gas network to the complex, with the aim of replacing distillate with natural gas and reducing emissions from this peaking plant by 40 per cent for the occasional times it is in use. This natural gas connection will ultimately facilitate biomethane, and then green hydrogen, providing carbon-free, firm generation capacity to back-up Bord na Móna’s expanding portfolio of wind and solar assets, and for the power system in general. This facility will play an important role in facilitating the expansion of Ireland’s renewable capacity from circa 5GW today to 10GW and beyond in the future.

In 2023, Bord na Móna sourced approximately 80 per cent of the biomass material consumed at the Edenderry Facility indigenously from exforest via local sawmills, located within a 100km radius of the complex. This biomass source on its own does not provide the required combustion chemistry to ensure the efficient

combustion of fuel within the combustion chamber. It is therefore important that the company supplements this with biomass material that provides the necessary additives to ensure efficient combustion and meets current emissions standards. Research and trials over the years has indicated that those materials are best sourced from residues from the pulp and paper manufacturing process. As a result, about 20 per cent of the biomass fuel used in Edenderry at present is certified sustainable residues sourced from the international pulp and paper sector. Bord na Móna works with Preferred by Nature, an international non-profit organisation that supports better land management and business practices, to carry out on-the-ground sustainability audits on its behalf at international sites where biomass material is sourced. Reilly adds: “When biomass is combusted, CO2 is emitted from the process, however, plans are afoot to examine the possibility of installing carbon capture technology, which would see the power plant classified as a “negative emissions” unit, which could prove invaluable to Ireland on our journey to net zero. The captured carbon would be ‘biogenic’ in nature and could have a number of extremely valuable

uses in a carbon constrained world.” As one of the largest suppliers of renewable electricity in Ireland, Bord na Móna will continue to focus on expanding its energy portfolio as well as on the development of low carbon enterprises, peatlands rehabilitation and sustainable waste management, which will all support the delivery of our national climate goals. Bord na Móna has been serving communities across Ireland for almost 90 years and through its renewable energy offering will continue to safeguard green energy supply for these communities in the future. The Edenderry Renewable Energy Complex will play a key role in this journey, with the Company’s €100 million investment at the site allowing it to provide an ondemand renewable energy source for the national grid when the wind does not blow, and the sun does not shine.

T: 045 439 000 E: info@bnm.ie W: www.bordnamona.ie

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According to John Reilly: “The company’s focus is now on maintaining the Edenderry Power Station as a dispatchable source of renewable electricity generation on the power system. Maintaining firm dispatchable power sources on the electric power system is crucial to increasing the deployment of intermittent nonsynchronous forms of generation, such as wind and solar power. Across much of Europe, that firm capacity will be provided by gas or even nuclear facilities. Our focus today is on securing increasing volumes of sustainable biomass to ensure that the Edenderry Power Station can continue to play this vital role in the journey to a net zero electric power system.”

Last delivery of peat to Bord na Móna’s Edenderry Power Station’.

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Powering the digital workplace in the energy sector Gas Networks Ireland hosted a round table discussion with key stakeholders in the utility sector to discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by digitalisation of the energy sector. How has Ireland’s energy sector been impacted by the digitalisation of the corporate workplace environment in recent years? Pádraig Sugrue The biggest change undoubtedly has been the move towards remote working,

which has seen significant IT investment in new tools, collaboration capability, technological devices, and meeting room technology. The feedback on this change has been overwhelmingly positive from an employee’s perspective. However, from an IT perspective, it has taken big investment to ensure that the solutions we provide are highly reliable. That onus that has always been on IT departments to provide secure, highly available systems, and this has now transitioned

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onto the whole digital workplace environment in terms of ensuring people are able to work productively regardless of their location.

Steve Martin The pandemic was a catalyst for collaboration tools and remote technologies, but it feels like the next iteration of change is coming. For example, we are currently trialling the use of Microsoft Co-pilot productivity tools, which have a mix of functions, such as AI-generated meeting summaries and email drafting capabilities. It is early days, but these emerging technologies will significantly optimise collaboration in the future. There is absolutely more to come, which will be essential to meet increasing customer and employee expectations.

Paul Cooley

“Post-Covid, the focus for many organisations has been on the corporate workplace and remote enablement but it feels like now is the right time to refocus back on the field workplace and assess how we can improve productivity and safety with new technologies.” Pádraig Sugrue

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The pandemic mandated a transition for everyone and moved us from desktops to laptops and mobile devices, and that brought with it a mindset and culture change. People no longer feel restricted to a desk, but they also do not feel like they own a desk space, which is completely different to how they operated previously. I joined EirGrid at the back end of Covid and I found that people were not as embedded in the ethos of the organisation that they were in because they had been at home for a year and a half, and the return was transformative. None of the meeting rooms were Teams-enabled when we came back, for example, and that was a huge issue for us in the IT area. The change has been for the better and I am really enjoying the Teams AI function; it requires a different mindset, and I am all for it. 4

Round table participants Aoife Aherne

Paul Cooley

Aoife Aherne leads Accenture’s Utilities business in Ireland and the UK. During her career, she has led business and technology transformation across the Irish utility sector, including the design and implementation of energy markets; utility establishment programmes; operating model design and implementation; and strategy and road-map definition to enable the adoption of new technology in utility companies IT and OT estates.

Paul Cooley is Head of IT Infrastructure and Telecoms for the EirGrid Group, a position he has held since September 2021. Prior to this, Cooley held roles at Leveris, emgs, and NBIM. He is a graduate of Waterford Institute of Technology and holds an MSc in Information Systems from Dublin City University.

Roy Baker Roy Baker is Director of Transformation and Change for SSE Airtricity, a position he has held since 2016. Having been at Airtricity prior to its purchase by SSE, Baker has held various positions within the organisation, such as Director of Operations and CX and Director of Retail Efficiency. A member of the Irish Institute of Credit Management, he holds a Master Black Belt from Lean Six Sigma following his successful delivery of the Making Life Easier Programme within SSE Airtricity. Baker has also served as Chair and COO of Kickboxing Ireland since 2010.

Steve Martin Steve Martin is Chief Information Officer for Bord Gáis Energy, where he leads the development and execution of the Bord Gáis Energy's technology strategy. He has over 20 years’ experience in IT and management consultancy sectors, having held roles in KPMG Ireland and Deloitte prior to joining Bord Gáis Energy in 2015.

Pádraig Sugrue Pádraig Sugrue is Head of Information Technology at Gas Networks Ireland and is responsible for leading all aspects of the organisation’s IT strategy, delivery, and operations including the delivery of Gas Networks Ireland digital workplace. Prior to joining Gas Networks Ireland, Pádraig worked with Accenture for 16 years where his role included leading, managing, and delivering IT transformation, IT strategy and IT systems delivery initiatives across a range of industries and organisations.

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“Overall, the change has been positive and employee expectations of the digital workplace is high and driving demand for the digitalisation of other employee services.” Aoife Aherne Aoife Aherne Workplace digitalisation traditionally struggled to attract investment, particularly in the regulated utility sector. The pandemic triggered an increase in investment in workplace enablement. It also exposed gaps in IT asset management, with businesses blind to the multiple hardware and software configurations in their estate. With these challenges addressed, the path to increased adoption of cloud-based solutions in the digital workplace is smoother. Overall, the change has been positive and employee expectations of the digital workplace is high and driving

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demand for the digitalisation of other employee services.

Roy Baker Large corporate groups traditionally move slowly and carefully. We always had consideration of remote working, but Covid served as a catalyst to move into areas within three weeks that normally, it would have taken us two or three years to prepare. Digitalisation and remote working have changed the culture within our organisation. We are particularly more attuned to cultural diversity now and we have learned to be more dynamic, where we are now dealing with offshores that are purely online and agencies from different cultures. We have also had to change our capabilities to deliver services to customers with different expectations, but that need to be balanced with an outlook that nothing beats in-person workshops to work through a complicated problem.

What is the single most significant challenge aligned to the digitalisation? Paul Cooley For me, it is the threat landscape that exists. The opportunities presented by digitalisation are also the challenges; we give staff devices to be agile and work from home, but we also need that environment to be office secure. There is a cultural shift needed whereby the security habits that exist in the office transfer to the mobile working environment. IT is catching up and things like the zero-trust security model are enabling capability for feeling safe and secure, but we are all on a journey to navigate the threat landscape.

Roy Baker Importantly, it is not just the volume of threats that is challenging but more and more, it is the complexity. When you are operating a critical infrastructure, with that can come a level of intent from cyber criminals to directly target the likes of energy companies in an attempt to shut down the network. The reality is that these criminals are agile and using extraordinary measures on a daily basis, so the greatest challenge is staying ahead of the curve.

Steve Martin There is an irony in that the benefits of digitalisation are also the means by which cyber criminals are given opportunities to attack. The best defence is to be continuously ahead of the threat, but that is not easy. A further challenge linked to digitalisation is that of prioritisation. Often simplifying and improving existing capabilities within an organisation is more effective than investment in something new. New platforms and new tools can be a distraction to efficient digitalisation, because often it is easier to build a business case for new technologies, than it is for simplifying existing systems or building data enablers. The challenge comes from finding a balance between those dimensions of new tooling, simplification of existing, and foundational enablers.

Pádraig Sugrue

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I would agree that the greatest challenge we face is the risk of cyberattack, and as a consequence the need to ensure that there is sufficient protection and controls built into the digital workplace solutions that we provide to our employees. This is not always easy and requires a careful balance between meeting the needs of the business or individuals, while at the same time not compromising our security posture or the necessary preventative controls that need to be in place.

“It is too early to place one big bet, so it is about trying new things, capturing the lessons – and hopefully having a bit of fun along the way.”

Steve Martin

Aoife Aherne I agree that cyber threat is probably the biggest risk, however, in terms of challenge I would lean more towards employee engagement. The decarbonisation challenge will require the mobilisation of a diverse multidisciplinary workforce. Current and future generations of graduates and apprentices are digital natives who expect modern, flexible digital workplaces. As we meet this need, we must be sure to get the balance right and harness the benefits of in-person teaming, learning and collaboration.

Roy Baker To some extent that agility is a challenge. Post-Covid, skilled workers are now more transitional, and the workforce is more fluid. That means it is more difficult to attract talent, but it is also more difficult to retain them, particularly in specialised areas such as cyber and IT.

Aoife Aherne AI, and particularly generative AI, capabilities are now at the disposal of organisations who have invested in a secure digital core. As organisations move from experimentation to scaled

implementations for many there is a big gap between responsible AI intention and action. In recent Accenture Research, we found that only 2 per cent of businesses say they have fully operationalised responsible AI across their organisation, with a further 31 per cent expected to do so in the next 18 months.

To what extent will emerging technologies unlock new benefits for the energy sector? Roy Baker One of the major challenges facing the energy sector is understanding the relationship between generation, supply, and demand side management of the future. The electrification of transport is a good example of how technology changes have put pressure on the grid and to prevent this happening to future energy systems, we need to be able to see over the horizon. Emerging technologies are going to alter how our energy systems work, they are going to change market, retailer, and consumer

relationships, but technology also has a role in helping to understand, manage, and even predict changes.

Aoife Aherne Looking at it from the perspective of those delivering services at the coalface, field mobility has been a key part of service delivery in the utility sector since the early noughties. Since then, we have seen field mobility capability mature, both in terms of hardware and software. What we have not really seen, particularly in the UK in Ireland, is the adoption of wearable, hands-free technologies, where the connected field worker has access to over the shoulder coaching, for example. It is interesting that these technologies have emerged in other sectors, such as oil and gas, aided by the availability of robust telecom networks in large sites like refineries. These technologies are proven and have helped improve accuracy, efficiency, and the field 4

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“Emerging technologies are going to alter how our energy systems work, they are going to change market, retailer, and consumer relationships, but technology also has a role in helping to understand, manage, and even predict changes.” Roy Baker workers’ experience. The question now is how can utilities learn from other sectors to incrementally exploit and adopt some of these now proven technologies?

Roy Baker SSE recently piloted a technology with our gas and solar teams across Ireland whereby AI on an engineer’s phone was used to conduct audit checks. Over 110 people a day have been using the technology over the course of a year and it has been very well received because it improves safety and offers confidence to engineers.

Pádraig Sugrue In Gas Networks Ireland, we feel that we are close to a connectivity tipping point whereby emerging technologies such as wearables could soon become a viable option. For the past 10 to 15 years, we have had technology utilised by our field workforce and that technology has evolved organically over time with the

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addition of new capability such as survey, GIS, and other apps. In the past, there has been challenges in relation to telecoms and bandwidth for remote locations but that is now changing with advances in this area. Post-Covid, the focus for many organisations has been on the corporate workplace and remote enablement but it feels like now is the right time to refocus back on the field workplace and assess how we can improve productivity and safety with new technologies, including the rollout of Office 365 and Teams

Steve Martin In adopting emerging technology for our field workforce, it is fundamental that we engage with our colleagues to fully understand their pain-points and the opportunities to help them better meet the needs of our customers. Simply designing a process and interface in the office and assuming it will be fit for a field-based engineer just does not work. Design considerations must involve engineers who will be using the technology – and we have a great opportunity to ‘test and learn’ in this space with the emerging technologies on the horizon.

Aoife Aherne Another element of this is around support. A technology problem in the home office can often be ‘worked around’ by the office worker; however, technology problems in the field can have an immediate impact on field worker efficiency and safety. There is a need for a bespoke support service for field mobility, particularly as we roll out new digital and AI enabled technologies.

Paul Cooley If the true benefits for the energy sector are going to be realised through emerging technologies, then there must be greater understanding and awareness among the public of the requirements for this technology. In recent months there has been a spike in interest from the end user about the electricity system, spurred by an increase in bill costs. If we are to fully embrace the 10-years ahead mindset then there needs to be buy-in that these future technologies and future systems will require infrastructure, change, and investment.

Pádraig Sugrue That 10-year horizon scanning is important, and for example in Gas Networks Ireland we are in the process of developing an AI strategy and roadmap which looks to the future, but also aims to cut through the current hype around AI and bring it back to the basics of where AI can deliver clear value for our organisation in the near-term. Value is not only about revenue generation, but also increasing the productivity of people and the workforce. A number of interesting AI use

cases exist around things like demand forecasting and network planning which could potentially be very useful, but we do need to assess as part of our strategy what value they could bring in the context of our specific organisation.

Aoife Aherne The potential for value from AI is clear – however it is not plug-and-play; to scale, you must deeply understand the technology, which is still rapidly changing, and the business value it will bring. The sectors furthest ahead on the journey include banking, communications/media and software and platforms business. In our regulated utility sector, scaled adoption will be considered and measured. Investment will be needed to identify business value; establish secure digital foundations, particularly scalable data platforms in the cloud; prepare the workforce; and close the gap on responsible AI. This is a multiyear journey.

Roy Baker It is around distraction management, understanding where we are placing our bets. We cannot place our bets everywhere, so it is about making an informed decision on where we believe the industry and the consumers are going to go. You cannot try and do everything, so distraction management is key.

Aoife Aherne There are two things that we are focused on to achieve this balance: firstly, our people, and how we engage them and bring them together in an increasingly hybrid world; and secondly, how we capture value from AI. We have been on our own generative AI journey for nearly 18 months and in our experience, the real accelerator with generative AI is not the technology, it is people. To that end, it is about rethinking our talent strategy for the age of AI because every single person in our business will use GenAI in the future. So for us it is about considering ‘how the work that we do will

“The opportunities presented by digitalisation are also the challenges; we give staff devices to be agile and work from home, but we also need that environment to be office secure.”

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How is your organisation balancing the demand for increased digitalisation of the workplace environment with the need for human interaction and engagement in an increasingly hybrid workforce?

Paul Cooley change with AI’, ‘how our workforce needs to change’ and ‘how we get our workers ready for this’.

Paul Cooley The big challenge for us is what is coming with offshore wind. We must figure out how to manage that and get ahead. There is a huge amount we can do with things like digital twins to get up to speed and that will all be set by data. We need to create a data platform to cope with everything that we need.

Steve Martin We are in the test and learn phase, setting up an innovation practice. There is all this possibility, and we are trying to get the balance between innovations that support customers, colleagues, and the technology function itself. We are addressing the key foundational enablers to be ready in the future, whilst also trying things. It is too early to place one big bet, so it is about trying new things, capturing the lessons – and hopefully having a bit of fun along the way.

Pádraig Sugrue It is certain that we will see increased digitalisation and use of AI in the coming years. What the last few years have taught us is that it cannot be a one-sizefits-all approach when rolling out this new capability in our organisations. Graduates coming out of college have a very different expectation of digitalisation compared with someone who has been in the workplace for 30 or more years. That is not going to change because we introduce more digitalisation, it is something that we are going to have to manage carefully as we continue on this journey.

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100 days: Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Ireland Exactly 100 days after Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip began and 80 days after its ground invasion commenced, Ciarán Galway sits down with Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Ireland – and Gazan native – Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid. Steam spills into the stillness of Leeson Street from a row of Georgian townhouses, one of which hosts the Embassy of Palestine. It is a perfect winter’s morning by Dublin standards – almost cloudless blue skies, a piercing low sun, and an icy bite in the air. It is a world away from Gaza where the haze shrouding its streetscapes is a noxious mix of pummelled concrete dust, smoke, and death. Unsurprisingly, given the timing, the Ambassador of the State of Palestine is unsmiling. Yet, as she dons her keffiyeh, she still extends a genial welcome into her office. Born in Gaza as an internally displaced refugee, Wahba Abdalmajid began her diplomatic service as an assistant chief of protocol with the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates (MOFAE) in 1995, followed by a posting to Cyprus, where she completed a PhD.

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Acknowledging her love of the job from day one, she remembers the early challenges of establishing a new government department: “We all worked together. There were no positions at that time. We worked for 24 hours a day. There was no time limit,” adding: “I engaged more with the President’s Office; with Abu Ammar [then-President Yasser Arafat]. That was the first opportunity that I had to engage with or see him face to face. It was a dream that all Palestinians used to have. ‘Am I going to see Abu Ammar?’ I saw him. I attended meetings with him. The journey started there.”

Bilateral relations Tasked with advancing bilateral relations and strengthening the ties between the governments and people of Palestine and Ireland, the Ambassador is cognisant of the “long relations between the Irish people and the Palestinians”.

“Historically, the relations between Palestinians and Irish have always been strong,” she says, adding: “We share the same history of colonisation. When I discuss colonisation, occupation, oppression, and starvation, the Irish people understand what I am talking about.” Describing the diplomatic ties as a practical manifestation of this relationship, the Ambassador describes her experience in collaborating across the political spectrum. “Since I arrived here in Ireland, I have been welcomed in every aspect, from the normal people to the Government, and the different parties. We have found a warm welcome in Ireland. That gives us a space,” she says. “Palestine, if I can say it, unifies all the Irish, whether from the Government or the opposition. Usually, when you are a diplomat in any country, you have to be

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careful, but here in Ireland we are confident because we are talking about an area [of policy] that both the Government and the opposition have the same kind of thoughts.”

Palestinian Authority Established in 1994, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is a provisional government, established under the Oslo Accords. Assuming the role previously held by the PLO as the official voice of Palestinians, the PA was given a five-year lifespan, but it still in existence 26 years after this deadline. As a representative of the PA, the Ambassador insists: “The Palestinian Authority represents all the Palestinians. We came together under the umbrella of the PLO which signed the Oslo Accords. Our governments have people from the right, the left, and the middle. The Fatah movement, the Palestinian Democratic Union, and most of the factions of the PLO are represented in the Palestinian Authority.” However, to date, the PA exerts only partial control of the Palestinian territory, with large sections of the West Bank controlled by illegal Israeli settlers. The PA has no control of its capital, East Jerusalem, which was illegally annexed by Israel in 1980 and, along with West Jerusalem, is claimed by Israel as a ‘unified’ capital. Beyond the West Bank, Gaza has been administered by Hamas since June 2007. Despite these challenges, from 1995 until today, the Ambassador states, the PA has endeavoured to build the foundational institutions of the State of Palestine.

“When I discuss colonisation, occupation, oppression, and starvation, the Irish people understand what I am talking about.” Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Ireland, Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid

less than three months, the West Bank has been under a state of emergency. General elections have not taken place in Palestine since, and while Mahmoud Abbas’ presidential term expired in 2009, he remains in office as the acting president of the Palestinian Authority. When asked about the fact that the PA is not directly elected, the Ambassador says: “The Israelis prevented the Palestinians from undertaking the normal process of elections and they did not facilitate it. That made us decide that without East Jerusalem being part of the elections, there would be no elections.”

Elections and Hamas

Consequently, Gaza continues to be governed by Hamas, with senior figurehead, Ismail Haniyeh leading its government until February 2017, when he was succeeded by Yahya Sinwar, the current leader of the political and military movement. Since Hamas’ ascension to power in Gaza in 2007, Gaza has been totally blockaded – land, air, and sea – by both Israel and Egypt. Of its three access points, two are controlled by the former and one by the latter.

In the January 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) election, Hamas won a significant majority of seats (74/132). Since the Fatah-Hamas war in 2007, the outbreak of which prompted the collapse of the unity government after

Asked to explain the popularity of Hamas, the Ambassador is contemplative. “The idea of resistance against the occupation in itself is very well recognised in international law,” she begins. “Being under the occupation, we have the right

“We have institutions in East Jerusalem. This is how the Palestinian Authority has worked and will continue to work,” she outlines, while insisting: “Over time, the Israelis deliberately weakened the Palestinian Authority.”

to resist. This right is protected under international law. The idea that Hamas built on resistance to the occupation brought support for Hamas as a faction.” Acknowledging that “resistance is part of our culture”, she emphasises the PA’s trajectory toward “public resistance”. “We chose peace as our path, but we put resistance in a different way that works with the agreements or principles that we signed with Israel. This is a public resistance. Hamas still believes in – and the ideology of Hamas is built on – armed resistance. That is why they [Hamas] have this support among Palestinians.”

‘The day after’ Turning to the ongoing war on Gaza, which has followed the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel launched by Hamas’ armed wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,139 Israelis – including many civilians – and the capture of around 240 hostages, the Ambassador is reluctant to even contemplate ‘the day after’ the ongoing bloodshed. “We have reached 100 days of this barbaric war against Gaza. The most important thing that all Palestinians think about is stopping this bloodshed. This is the most important thing,” she says. “Talking about ‘the day after’, is not

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[the Israelis] did not kill the idea, they just destroyed Gaza and made it an unliveable place for the Palestinians.” Talking about the casualties, Wahba Abdalmajid is keen to accentuate that “they are not numbers,” rather, she emphasises, they were individuals and indeed entire families, “who lived and who had stories”. “We are talking about 25,000 orphans. There are more than 66,000 injured people; these people need hospitals, they need treatment, and only five hospitals out of 36 are working in Gaza, but not working properly. Israel destroyed the health sector. So, there is no comparison between this one [war] and the previous four wars.”

Claim of genocide

“The main goal of this war is to destroy Hamas, but Hamas – whether I agree with its ideology or not – is an idea.” something that we do not think about, but first we need to stop this war… You look at Gaza and see that more than 70 per cent of the residential areas, institutions, and the health sector is totally destroyed, it is not only for the Palestinian Authority to think about by itself... Without the support of the international community… we cannot move on. We need everybody’s effort to look at the situation and talk.”

Unprecedented destruction While preceded by the Second Intifada, Operation Cast Lead, Operation Pillar of Defense, and Operation Protective Edge in the 20th century alone, it would be a mistake to regard the latest cycle of violence in Gaza as having precedence. Indeed, declaring war on 7 October 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered an extensive mobilisation of military reserves and threatened that “the enemy will pay an unprecedented price”. At the time of print, as per the Gazan Ministry of Health, 28,775 people have

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been confirmed killed, 68,552 wounded, and 1.8 million (80 per cent) internally displaced by Israel’s attack on Gaza. For context, from 1 January to 7 October 2023, 239 Palestinians were killed by Israel according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Meanwhile, 136 Israeli hostages remain in captivity in Gaza (after a brief ceasefire and partial hostage-prisoner exchange in late November 2023). IDF projections suggest that some 20 per cent of the remaining hostages have now been killed in ambiguous circumstances. Commenting on the devastation unleashed upon Gaza in the name of Israeli ‘self-defence’ – including the destruction of over 60 per cent of housing units – the Ambassador is subdued: “This is a savage, barbaric war against the normal people. Around 70 per cent of the people who have been killed are women and children. And until now [today], Hamas is still there [in Gaza]. “The main goal of this war is to destroy Hamas, but Hamas – whether I agree with its ideology or not – is an idea. But they

Alleging that Israel was violating its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, South Africa filed an application to institute proceedings against the State of Israel on 29 December 2023. Public hearings on South Africa’s request for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to indicate provisional measures to “protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people” and “to ensure Israel’s compliance with its obligations” were heard via oral submissions to the ICJ on 11 and 12 January 2024 respectively. Subsequently, on 26 January, as requested by South Africa, the ICJ indicated six provisional measures that Israel must implement under the 1948 Genocide Convention. First among these was: “The State of Israel shall, in accordance with its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, in relation to Palestinians in Gaza, take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article II of this Convention.” Asked whether she believed that Israeli conduct in Gaza amounted to genocide, the Ambassador is unequivocal: “It is. If you saw and you followed the ICJ in the last couple of days, South Africa took a huge landmark decision. It is the first time

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Israel has appeared in this court. It was a courageous step by South Africa.

Vision for peace and reconciliation

“You could realise that it is a genocide because we witness it, and you witness it live on TV. You cannot hide it. If you want to ignore or deny it, that is your prerogative. But what is happening in Gaza now is a real genocide.”

Responding to a question around the PA’s vision for peace, and whether reconciliation with Israel is viable, the Ambassador is adamant that “it will be possible”.

Speaking on the relationship between South Africa and Palestine, the Ambassador observes: “We always remember Mandela’s [1997] quote that ‘We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians’. Subsequent generations, and sons and daughters of Mandela, still walk his talk.”

Palestinian unity On the prospect of revived Palestinian unity, the Ambassador speaks with candour: “I do not see that we can continue without being united. All the Palestinian factions should unite because this disaster – this catastrophe that I call Nakba 2023 – should bring all the Palestinians together. Without all of us being together, I do not think that we will move one step.” Indicating that the PA has “never stopped talking with Hamas”, Wahba Abdalmajid reminisces on the raison d'être of the PLO. “We the Palestinians for so many years, since the PLO was created, worked together with all factions. We used to disagree with each other under the umbrella of the PLO. This will not end, but if there is a democratic system in the country, it protects all these parties to work on the level of democracy for the benefit of the people.” After Israel’s assassination of Saleh alArouri, the deputy leader of Hamas, in a Beirut suburb in January 2024, Jibril Rajoub, Fatah Secretary-General, paid his condolences, suggesting some potential for a renewed dialogue between the two dominant factions. “Definitely there will be talks. We should be together. At this challenging time, I think every Palestinian who belongs to a different faction should think of Palestine and our people first,” the Ambassador remarks.

“We are working for a free Palestine, to end the occupation, to build an independent state on the ’67 borders, and to have peaceful relations with the Israelis,” she insists, adding: “It is very difficult at this moment of the war to say that, but it is not something you say as a tactic, it is a strategy, it is a vision for how we think. “Yes, I am angry, I do not accept what Israel is doing to us, and I want Israel to be held accountable for the crimes that it has committed against our people. It cannot violate international law and leave without accountability; it should be held accountable for all of these crimes. “I still believe that. If there is a will from the international community, there will be a way to pressure Israel to go on this peaceful path. But our vision would not be less than a peaceful solution.” Alluding to the revised charter document published by Hamas leader Khaled Meshall, from his exile in Qatar in May 2017, Wahba Abdalmajid suggests that “even Hamas people believe in that [a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders] now”. A Document of General Principles and Policies outlines: “Hamas considers the establishment of a Palestinian state, sovereign and complete, on the basis of the June 4, 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital and the provision for all the refugees to return to their homeland is an agreeable form that has won a consensus among all the movement members.” However, Hamas has simultaneously refused to recognise the legitimacy of the State of Israel.

Viability of the two-state solution Simultaneously, in January 2024, Netanyahu boasted that he “has prevented… the establishment of a Palestinian state,” further vowing: “As long as I am Prime Minister, I will continue

to strongly insist on this.” In this context, asked whether it is conceivable that Palestine has endured a decades-long national liberation struggle to achieve autonomous rule over just 22 per cent of historic Palestine, as per the 1967 borders, the Ambassador replies: “Our vision for this is the two-state solution on the ’67 borders; Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. If I want to discuss with you the other options, it does not work for anyone, even the Israelis. To suggest a one-state solution to them, they would not accept almost 6.5 million Palestinians to live next to them. “The two-state solution is the only viable option, but you need to have the will from the international community to put it on the table and activate it. We [the PA] accepted this. Yes, [the state would comprise only] 22 per cent of Palestine. That was a compromise that we accepted. We need to think of peace. So, we have to pay for this – we as Palestinians.”

Optimism While at several stages, Wahba Abdalmajid’s responses reveal the weariness weighing on her – as a Palestinian and as a Gazan – at no point does she betray a hint of hopelessness. “We have a right to exist, and we defend our rights and I have to look to the future, the future of the Palestinians, the young generations. I wanted my children to grow in a peaceful place, to grow without thinking of war, to look for a better future. I believe in that, and all the Palestinians believe in that; even those who live now through the most savage war on this earth, they still have hope, with all the catastrophe and with all the disaster that they live through. They still have hope. “You cannot imagine how resilient they [the Palestinian people] are.” Naturally, her concluding thoughts bring to mind the words of Terence MacSwiney when addressing the Cork Corporation at his inauguration as Lord Mayor of Cork in March 1920: “This contest of ours is not, on our side, a rivalry of vengeance, but one of endurance. It is not they who can inflict most, but they who can suffer most, will conquer.”

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Improved productivity in construction key to multi-market supply challenges Labour shortages in the construction sector are posing key challenges to supply in all housing markets in Ireland and Britain, research has found. In an extensive report analysing the Irish, Northern Irish, Welsh, Scottish, and English residential markets, with a particular focus on their capacity to increase housing supply over the short to medium term, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) highlights a need for changes to traditional recruitment methods. Suggesting adaptations that include hiring trainees and apprenticeships to allow young workers to learn on the job, alongside attracting skilled workers who have left the industry to return, the research highlights that while the challenge exists across all markets, the situation is particularly acute for the Northern Ireland and British markets, where Brexit has made net immigration into the UK more difficult. “Traditionally over the past 25 years, housing markets in Ireland and the UK have sourced a significant amount of labour from the European Union. By 28

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definition, this is now more difficult for the UK and the Northern Ireland markets,” it states. Brexit has also had an impact on the ‘hard costs’ experienced by individual housing markets. While the Republic of Ireland has in recent years experienced higher materials and labour costs than housing markets in Britain, the rate of growth in costs in those markets has been faster, exacerbated by Brexit. “This is putting further upward pressure on wages and prices of materials, on top of international trends generally,” the report states. However, it is noted that Northern Ireland’s housing market has been somewhat shielded from Brexit-related cost increases in relation to materials, due to the arrangements of the Windsor Framework. This is not the case when it comes to wages, with Northern Ireland seeing the fastest rate of wage increases compared to the

Republic of Ireland and the rest of the UK. Contrasting housing supply in Ireland, Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom identifies a number of substantive factors impacting the supply side of the housing market, not least production costs, regulatory environments and the economic dynamics, across the different markets. Alongside labour market shortages, another key finding across all markets is evidence that the “traditional financial sector” no longer appears able “to provide the requisite amount of credit for the level of housing activity which has been deemed necessary to meet the underlying structural demand for housing”. The report identifies increased government investment in social and affordable stock across all markets but highlights the Republic of Ireland as the most prominent case.

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Total housing supply per capita (1,000): Northern Ireland, Ireland, England, Wales, and Scotland 25

Northern Ireland

Ireland

From around the 1970s, governments have been less involved in the housing markets as the private sector worked to increase supply, however, the financial crash in 2008, a significant weakening of the construction sector, aligned with slow recovery and increasing demand has seen sharp rent and house price increases. “Governments have become more active again in the housing markets, with many publishing housing plans outlining specific targets for housing supply. Given the significant fall-off in supply in Ireland, it is not surprising that the Irish Government has set the highest targets per capita across the regions discussed.” However, recognised by the report is the fact that government housing plans usually refer to the annual increase in housing required to meet new demand due to demographic pressures, but typically do not take into account the backlog of demand due to targets not being met in the past.

Planning While all housing markets share similarities in navigating challenges of the planning systems, the ESRI research suggests that Northern Ireland is being most hampered by a lack of standardisation in planning across local areas. Highlighting recent reform of the planning process in Ireland, the report suggests that the Scottish model, whereby local authorities when preparing local plans place a significant emphasis on consultations with interested parties and community members, might be beneficial across other markets.

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“The report therefore suggests a greater degree of aggregation may be more practical in devising and implementing such development plans,” it states. Linked to the planning system is a suggestion that housing markets in Ireland and Britain could benefit from greater regulation in the provision of land for housing, recognising the potential to reduce land prices, and lower overall production costs. In this regard, it is noted that Irish and British housing markets are “somewhat idiosyncratic” compared to other European models. Detailed statistical analysis within the report also identified a number of key findings, namely: that compared to Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland’s housing market has a much stronger longrun price elasticity of housing supply, suggesting that investment in the Irish housing market responds more strongly to an increase in house prices than in Northern Ireland. Additionally, Irish house prices have a significant negative relationship with housing stock, meaning that an increase in stock will lower house prices. However, the impact is weaker than in Britain, while in Northern Ireland, where increases in dwellings do not have the same deflationary impact. Finally, the report points to analytical data which suggest that across all housing markets, house price response to changes in supply is weaker when the percentage of social housing stock is increased.

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UK legacy legislation: Ireland pursues legal avenue

Houses of Parliament, London. Credit: Amnesty International

Ireland has initiated its first interstate case against the British Government at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) since the ‘hooded men’ torture case in 1971. In December 2023, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD announced that his Government would pursue a legal challenge against British Government legislation relating to ‘Troubles’ legacy under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). Indicating that all political options had been exhausted and expressing regret that “such a choice had to be made”, Tánaiste Micheál Martin TD asserted: “The decision by the British Government not to proceed with the 2014 Stormont House Agreement and instead pursue legislation unilaterally, without effective engagement with the legitimate concerns that we, and many others, raised left us with few options. The British Government removed the political option and has left us only this legal avenue. “The incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into Northern Ireland law is a specific

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and fundamental requirement of the Good Friday Agreement. Since the UK legislation was first tabled, the Government have been consistent that it is not compatible with the Convention.” Following the unilateral pursuit and enactment of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 in September 2023, the Irish Government has decided to challenge the British Government in the European Court of Human Rights. Commonly referred to as the Legacy Act, the legislation is ostensibly intended to “address the legacy of the Northern Ireland Troubles and promote reconciliation” by: •

creating an Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery;

•

limiting criminal investigations, legal proceedings, inquests, and police complaints;

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•

extending the prisoner release scheme in the Northern Ireland (Sentences) Act 1998; and

•

providing for “experiences to be recorded and preserved and for events to be studied and memorialised, and to provide for the validity of interim custody orders”.

However, the Act has succeeded in unifying victims’ groups and political parties of all shades in their opposition to it. Indeed, the Government has noted the “near universal opposition to the Legacy Act on the island of Ireland”. To date, in spite of five multilateral agreements – from the Good Friday Agreement 1998 to New Decade New Approach 2020 – consensus on the investigation of unsolved serious crimes during the ‘Troubles’ has not been reached. Disparate inquests, investigations, and civil litigations have filled the vacuum. Speaking in Dublin in December 2023, Varadkar insisted: “We would prefer not to be in this position. But we did make a commitment to survivors in Northern Ireland and to the families and victims, that we would stand by them. respect their wishes, and also stand by the Good Friday agreements, which specifically references the European Convention of Human Rights... we really have no option but to ask the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to carry out a judicial review of this legislation.” Before the legislation’s enactment, and following a visit to the UK in June 2022, the Council of Europe suggested that the UK Government should “consider withdrawing the Legacy Bill in view of the widespread opposition in Northern Ireland and the serious issues of compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights it raises”. In her December 2022 report, Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović observed: “Any further steps on legacy must place the rights and needs of victims at its heart.” That same month, the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers also “strongly reiterated” calls for the legislation to be amended “to allay... concerns about compatibility with the European Convention”. In January 2023, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk echoed Mijatović’s observations and indicated: “Respect for rights of victims, survivors, and their families to truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence is essential for reconciliation. Their rights must be placed at the heart of all attempts to address the legacy of the ‘Troubles’.” Urging the UK Government to “engage in further meaningful and inclusive consultations” to address the ‘Troubles’ legacy, he noted that the draft legislation – which was subsequently enacted – “appears to be incompatible with the UK’s international human rights obligations”.

“Introducing conditional immunity in this manner would likely be at variance with the UK’s obligations under international human rights law to investigate and, where appropriate, prosecute and punish those found responsible for serious human rights violations... “Concerns remain that the Bill would obstruct the rights of victims, survivors and their families to effective judicial remedy and reparations, including by prohibiting most criminal prosecutions and civil actions for ‘Troubles’-related offences,” he said. Welcoming the “state-level” legal challenge, Amnesty International’s Gráinne Teggart asserted: “The Irish Government is doing the right thing for victims, for the rule of law, and for the upholding of human rights. Victims’ rights to truth, reparations, and justice must be realised. This challenge is vital for victims here and around the world, who face the prospect of similar state-gifted impunity. “The UK Government doggedly pursued this legislation which shields perpetrators of serious human rights violations from being held accountable. It is important that the Irish Government takes this stand... We hope this critical litigation will bring all Troubles victims closer to the justice they deserve.” Speaking at the International Academy of Trial Lawyers Conference in Killarney, County Kerry in April 2023, the current President of the ECtHR, Síofra O’Leary warned: “Our rulings do not always please, either the respondent governments to which they are addressed, or members of the public,” adding: “As a court of law we are charged with interpreting and applying the law of the Convention whilst often navigating very choppy political waters... politics are never far from our courtroom, but politics is not what we do.” The Strasbourg Court is, O’Leary suggests: “A judicial canary in Europe’s democratic mine; an early warning signaller which points to where European states are failing with reference to their commitments to democracy, the rule of law and the protection of human rights.” In January 2024, the ECtHR has now confirmed that it has formally received Ireland’s case in which it contends that provisions of the UK legislation are incompatible with Articles 2 (right to life), 3 (prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment), 6 (right to a fair trial), 13 (right to an effective remedy), and 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the ECHR. However, with both the metaphorical and literal clock ticking for victims and survivors, and a backlog of some 76,000 cases pending according to O’Leary, it remains to be seen whether the legal process against the UK will reach a timely conclusion.

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Having “successfully overcome” a series of successive shocks through Covid-19, the energy crisis, and the cost-of-living crisis with “surprisingly little damage”, the Irish labour market and economy are stronger in many respects than before the pandemic, new NERI research suggests. Overview Despite emerging from such shocks relatively unscathed, the report by Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI) codirector Tom McDonnell states that the “post-pandemic bounce in the Republic of Ireland’s economy has ended”. Retrenchment in sectors dominated by foreign direct investment such as ICT and pharmaceuticals has seen the end of sector-specific “booms” in investment and exports, while cost of living pressures have “eroded” consumer confidence and resulted in demand constraint. Export potential in 2024 will be ‘dampened’ by a “relatively weak external environment” and the unwinding of the savings rate is predicted to restrict the potential for household potential to rise. Coupled with these predictions is that of high interest rates creating a “drag” on

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investment and concerns about higher than usual levels of business failure, although NERI states that these pressures will “hopefully recede over the course of the year [2024] as monetary policy loosens”. McDonnell also claims that these high interest rates will impact housing supply and the ability to address capacity constraints in infrastructure. Despite these pressures, NERI still predicts that the Irish economy will grow in 2024, but that the pace of growth will moderate towards a “more ‘normal’ pace compared to the volatile 2020 to 2023 period”. With price inflation set to continue to fall throughout 2024, consumer and business confidence are expected to be boosted, with modified domestic demand predicted to grow by 2 per cent, and this increased demand to lead to a gradual loosening of the European Central Bank’s monetary policy.

Credit: Merrionstreet.ie

‘A more normal year’

Budget 2024 Despite its “evident flaws”, NERI states Budget 2024 will go down as “one of the most consequential budgets of recent years” that will add to growth and inflation in 2024 due to its “modest stimulatory and pro-cyclical” measures. NERI states that these measures are “hardly ideal” with the economy close to or at full employment and run counter to monetary policy. The report criticises cost of living supports within the budget as “generally untargeted with significant deadweight in terms of averting poverty” and states that once-off supports “make little sense given the permanent nature of the price increases”. The Fiscal Council estimates that tax cuts in Budget 2024 will raise consumer prices by between 0.8 per cent and 1.5 per cent. These tax cuts and their “regressive nature” are said by NERI to have been

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Average weekly earnings by sector (€) versus inflation indices (HICP and CPI) 1,200.00

125.0

1,000.00

120.0

115.0

800.00

110.0 600.00 105.0 400.00 100.0 200.00

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90.0

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“expected but still unwelcome”, with the main beneficiaries being those earning over €71,000 per annum. NERI states that the most consequential measures in the budget will be the creation of two funds – the Future Island Fund (FIF) and the Climate and Nature Fund (ICNF). The FIF will “eventually produce a new revenue source from the middle of the next decade and reduce the fiscal pressures caused by an ageing population”, with the ICNF said to possibly “end up insulating the capital budget from the economic cycle”. Overall, public finances are said to be performing well, “assisted by the healthy state of the labour market and the ongoing profit shifting into Ireland”, with “very substantial surpluses” projected for the next few years. The medium-to-longterm fiscal position is, however, said to be “much more challenging” due to agerelated pressures, the cost of climate action, and diminishing revenues from green taxes.

Labour market The labour market is “still performing robustly, albeit with some evidence that the boom in employment is slowing down”, NERI says, with the number of people employed having increased by 4 per cent in Q3 2023 year-on-year. The labour participation rate is at its highest rate since 2008 and increased by 1 per cent on an annual basis to 65.8 per cent, with regional participation rates ranging from 62.4 per cent in the mid-west to 67.7 per cent in Dublin. Hours worked in the economy reached a third-quarter record of 82 million hours per week in 2023, up 2.1 per cent from Q3 2022, but NERI states that there is “tentative evidence that the labour market boom is ending”, with the job vacancy rate falling to 1.2 per cent in Q3 2023 and the employee index registering no net growth in employment between August and September 2023. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was recorded at 4.8 per cent in November 2023, increased from 4.1 per cent in March 2023. Male unemployment rose

from 4.3 per cent to 4.9 per cent in the same period, while youth unemployment rose from 10.2 per cent to 12.4 per cent in November 2023. Despite these concerning increases, the labour market remains “very tight” and its previous growth said to be “unsustainable”, with the Q3 2023 long-term unemployment rate of 1.1 per cent representing a record low. NERI predicts employment to grow by 1.5 per cent in 2024. Wage growth was flat between Q2 and Q3 2023; despite this, Q3 2023 recorded a 6 per cent increase in wage growth year-on-year in nominal terms. Average weekly earnings increased by 4.6 per cent annually (3.9 per cent in the private sector), while average hourly earnings were up 6.2 per cent. Consumer price index increases averaging 6.2 per cent in Q3 2023 mean that weekly earnings fell in real terms, with average hourly earnings growth flat. NERI predicts a real terms growth in wages in 2024, with the consumer price index predicted to grow by 3 per cent and nominal wage growth predicted to be 4.5 per cent.

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Embedding design in the public service Following the publication of Better Public Services in May 2023, the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery, and Reform (DPENDPDR), has announced a new Action Plan for Designing Better Public Services. Published in December 2023, the action plan calls for a “fundamental shift in how we approach government,” adding that “building a smarter government is the cornerstone for smarter solutions”. The action plan has been based on 10 design principles which were established in a previous DPENDPDR publication, Designing our Public Services: Design principles for Government in Ireland, which was published in October 2022. Using these principles, the Government believes that the role of design can be enhanced in order to improve delivery of public services, and central to this is the integration of new and emerging technologies, as well as viewing design as a strategic priority for the public service, increasing capability, and

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fostering a design culture which seeps through all aspects of the public service.

Demonstrate design commitment The action plan outlines the objective of strengthening the State’s public service by “embracing design as a strategic priority and embedding it across the entire public service”. To achieve this, by the first quarter of 2024, the Department is aiming to establish a dedicated design function to support public service bodies to embrace design values and principles in their organisations. Another objective is the establishment of

new funding mechanisms, with the aim of aligning existing mechanisms to include opportunities for organisations to secure additional funding for design related initiatives. The objective outlined by the Department is for this to be completed by the third quarter of 2024. The development of a national framework for public procurement of design services that is able to encourages greater participation of small businesses is another means outlined by the Department which it believes will demonstrate design commitment from above. It is expected that this will be published in second quarter of 2024. Another facet of demonstrating design commitment is the aim to “work with public service bodies” to integrate

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10 principles of better design 1)

Put people first

Design to be inclusive

Design services together

Design for trust

Design so knowledge can be re-used and shared

Challenge assumptions and design with evidence

Design from the top down and the bottom up

Design to deliver value. In all its forms.

Build, test, learn, and iterate

10)

Work to make things simpler

design as a core consideration in all relevant public service projects, which DPENDPDR says will be completed by Q3 2024.

Increase design capability To increase design capability, the Department states in the action plan that it will increase capacity and empower public servants with design skills and resources to drive innovation and deliver humancentred solutions. By the fourth quarter of 2024, the Department says that it will roll out design programmes and formal learning pathways to upskill and reskill current public service staff, however, the contents of these prospective plans have not been outlined. The action plan outlines that, by the second quarter of 2025, the Department will facilitate staff exchanges between public service, academia, and private sector with the objective of enabling knowledge transfer and skill enhancement that can be applied in a public service setting. In addition, there will be “tailored, useful and practical frameworks,” created, along with resources and assets to support learning and enable effective use of design across the public service, by the fourth quarter of 2024. To adapt to these new demands, new design-specific job descriptions will be created which align with current public service grades and competencies, with the objective of ensuring that design expertise is “recognised and integrated into job functions”. It is intended that this will be completed by the third quarter of 2024.

Foster design culture To act as a pump primer, DPENDPDR commits to nurturing a design-driven culture across the public service, which it says will be done promoting “creativity, collaboration, experimentation, and continuous improvement”. In the first quarter of 2024, DPENDPDR states it will “communicate, socialise and promote the successes, impacts, and key learnings from a design approach across the public service”. As part of this, there will be an important role for collaborate between DPENDPDR and other organisations on projects that showcase the impact of design and serve as examples for other organisations to adopt a design approach. The action plan also says that DPENDPDR will facilitate design-focused innovative challenges including sprints, hackathons, and deep dive workshops that it believes will encourage experimentation and cross-disciplinary collaboration. It will further collaborate with industry partners to host design-focused events to gain knowledge, best practice, and creative inspiration from experts. Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, Paschal Donohoe TD, expressed his confidence that initiatives and strategies which come to a design approach, as is called for in the action plan, will “influence and elevate our public service landscape for many decades to come”. “Embedding design thinking from the outset, and consistently throughout our process, ensures that our solutions and initiatives not only work better for people, but offer value for money and contribute to creating a better society for all.”

eolas issues

PUBLIC SERVICES 2024

Date for your diary

Wednesday 15 May ● The Gibson Hotel, Dublin

In recent years there has been huge progress in the key areas of promoting innovation, digitalising services and improving the development of people and workforce planning. Launched last year, Better Public Services is the new transformation strategy for the public service aimed at delivering for the public and building trust. Core pillars of the strategy are digital and innovation at scale; workforce and organisation of the future and evidence-informed policy and services designed with and for the public. Meanwhile, the Action Plan for Designing Better Public Services was launched in December 2023, a roadmap for embedding design across our public services. This conference will bring together key stakeholders from across Ireland’s public service to look ahead to what’s next and how we can collaborate to deliver transformation at scale. Sponsorship and exhibition opportunities Join Ireland’s leading organisations in partnering with Public Services 2024. There are a small number of highprofile packages available. For further information on how your organisation can benefit, contact us directly on +353 (0)1 661 3755 or email Lynda.Millar@eolasmagazine.ie.

A high level panel of experts will look at key issues including:

3 Better Public Services: Update

3 Delivering large scale

3 Strengthening public trust in

3 New workforce models;

on delivery;

government;

3 Embedding design across our public service;

3 Innovative leadership; 3 Innovation in healthcare delivery;

3 Engaging with the service user –

3 Creating and using innovative

3 Identifying skills gaps in the

3 Sectoral update: health; justice;

3 Upskilling and reskilling staff;

3 Best practice case studies.

becoming citizen-centric; public service;

Sponsored by

transformation;

solutions for government;

education; local government;

More information available soon! By phone

Online

+353 (0)1 661 3755

www.publicservices.ie

registration@eolasmagazine.ie

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Credit: Fianna Fáil

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Digital Minister Dara Calleary TD: ‘Policymakers must focus on AI beyond election cycles’ Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, Dara Calleary TD sits down with Ciarán Galway to outline the Government’s priorities in relation to AI regulation, the European context, and a vision for the future role of AI technology in Ireland. Ciarán Galway (CG): In August 2022, you were appointed as Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, what are your reflections since then? Dara Calleary (DC): We were in a good 38

space having the [AI: Here for Good] strategy since September 2021. I want to commend [my predecessor] Robert Troy TD and the officials here in the Department for being that farsighted. We had the fantastic National Youth Assembly on AI in October 2022. We did the first Digital Ireland Conference at the end of November 2022 where we got a

lot of the stakeholders together in Dublin Castle. Then ChatGPT appeared. It is not that it changed anything, but it just brought huge focus and has brought it into the mainstream. We have been very consistent that the principles of the strategy – trustworthy, person-centred, and ethical – still apply.

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“Every [government] department is beginning to look at it [AI technology] and advance it.” Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, Dara Calleary TD

We have had to keep people focused on that message, and keep people focused on delivering on the strategy. We are nearly signing off on the EU AI Act. Our officials are very involved in that. The fact that we were one of only six countries to be asked to the AI Safety Summit in Bletchley Park [Milton Keynes, UK] last November [2023] is a testament to our standing within the international AI community. Then, just in the last few weeks, we have stood up the AI Advisory Council, which I am really excited about. It is going to be independent; effectually to hold the feet of any government to the fire in relation to AI and also future technologies. There are 14 really experienced people on it; many global experts, all of whom are Irish. That is a good testament to the country. So what are we to do? Skills is going to be my big focus. We are going to be working with Minister Simon Harris TD over in the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science on that. We had the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs identify the skills [required] in spring 2022 and we still have multiple courses across third and fourth level, but also – very importantly for me – across community education, in AI skills. CG: What are some examples of the opportunities that AI present to improve the delivery of public services and to assist in tackling many of the complex societal challenges? DC: There are massive opportunities. We are beginning to use it across the agencies in this department [DETE] in terms of form filling and signing, and data and record management. Everything we are doing is with those key principles in mind: public trust and people centred. For instance, it could be massively used in the Companies Registration Office (CRO). Any company reading your interview knows the level of form filling that goes on there.

Healthcare has enormous potential. There is a really exciting project underway with Dell and UL [University of Limerick] around AI cancer care. Meanwhile, CeADAR – one of the national EDIHs [European Digital Innovation Hubs] for AI – in UCD is doing work on how AI technology can be used to predict future flooding trends. Every [government] department is beginning to look at it [AI technology] and advance it. Minister Ossian Smyth TD is in this space, so we work closely together on AI and how it can be utilised in the public service, in line with the strategy and in line with our aims, but also how we can use it innovatively. CG: To what extent is government’s vision for AI defined by its existence as a tool for assisting humans rather than replacing humans? DC: I do not want people to be replaced, I want their skills to be enhanced. That is why we are so focused on skills. So, yes, it is going to change the way we do work. Equally, every technology does, and I am not being complacent here. Look how vibrant the tech sector is here [in Ireland] at the moment. We are only marking 20 years of Facebook [week beginning 5 February 2024] and now it is a multi-thousand employer in Dublin. Google similarly. At the end of the day, the public service, for instance, is there to serve citizens, and if we can deliver services more efficiently to citizens and give citizens a better experience of public services then everybody wins. CG: How has government sought to ensure ethical and responsible use of AI in public service delivery? DC: The EU AI Act is a good signpost in relation to that. What that has looked at is what the risks are and has designated things that are high risk, 4 medium risk, low risk, and things that are unacceptable; that are not allowed, for instance, 39

Credit: Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment

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emotion recognition technology. High risk is in health and in law enforcement; the really stringent compliance requirements. Medium risks are transparency requirements. Low risk means minimal if any restrictions. If we get agreement in parliament – I do not want to assume EU Parliament agreement – in the next two months, then we will start the rollout of it. Subject to parliament agreement, it will enter into force probably in the early summer and then we have about 36 months to actually get it into place. [While it is] 36 months or three years, we will be doing an awful lot of it in the first 18 months. It builds the guardrails, it is accessible, and people will know what is allowed in terms of what is high risk, what is medium risk, what is low risk, and what is unacceptable in terms of the technology. CG: To what extent is there a potential for AI to produce or amplify inequitable or undesirable outcomes for individuals and communities?

DC: That is something that I am very focused on and very conscious of. I do not want it to amplify existing inequalities, I want it to be used to break down barriers. That is why we are working closely with Minister Ossian Smyth in terms of public services. I see it making the delivery of healthcare much fairer. When you see the waiting lists for healthcare, it is people on lower incomes that are on the waiting list or

waiting longer. I see using AI and getting access to technologies as having the potential make it far more equal. AI technologies have the potential, if used properly, and there is a strategy in place like ours, to open up all sorts of opportunities for every citizen. CG: How can public service bodies best prepare for the forthcoming EU AI Act? DC: Once it is signed off, and once we have the final version of it, we will be rolling out our briefing. We have worked closely with the agencies here in the Department to make sure that the Act is in good standing. Now that we have it, we have three years to prepare. The main elements will be in place within two. We will be rolling out a pretty ambitious briefing programme as to what is allowed. We also, at some stage this year – the reason I have not got a timeline on it is that we want to get the Act passed at EU level – will run a public information campaign on AI; what it is, what it can do for you, and making people aware of it. People are using it every day. I think that is one thing that people forget about. If you engage with a chatbot, that is AI. CG: Speaking with eolas Magazine in late 2023, Government CIO Barry Lowry referenced the challenge policymakers face in attempting to regulate AI amid a rapid pace of

evolution. To what extent do you recognise that challenge? DC: I recognise it, because it [AI technology] is moving quickly and we have so many other things going on as public representatives. That is why we have the AI Advisory Council, and that is why it is going to be independent of government. That is why I think it is important that we [policymakers] all take time to consider it [AI]. I know there are proposals – it is above my paygrade – that there will be an AI committee in the Oireachtas. I think they [the proposals] are worth pursuing but that is a matter for the Oireachtas to decide. One of the things that I notice in the discourse is that there is a lot of focus on AI in elections; obviously, in the context of forthcoming European elections, everyone is talking about AI in the election campaign. I would like to see people focus on AI after the election. So, what is the policy platform for the next European Parliament? What is the policy mandate for the next European Commission? We have the AI Act, so what are going to do? Equally, in the context of the next general election in this country – whenever it happens over the course of the next 12 months – let’s focus on AI policy as well as AI as a campaigning tool.

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“Every party should lay out their stall on AI and how they see it being utilised over the course of the next five years.”

CG: Ireland’s AI Ambassador role was established under Strand 1 of AI: Here for Good. What is the remit of that role? DC: I have described it as talking plain language about AI that people can access. The great thing about [AI Ambassador] Patricia Scanlon is that she comes from a very successful AI background, but she can explain the concepts in a language that people can understand. I have heard a lot of her interviews and her ability to put that across to people is excellent. We did a fantastic event with about 75 teenagers – the National Youth Summit on AI – that she spoke at, and she was brilliant in the way she interacted and the way she picked up on their thoughts and their concerns. She is the national AI Ambassador and continues to be. Separate from that role, she is the chair of the AI Advisory Council. She has put huge work into getting the membership of that council right, into getting the dynamics right, and I know they are working hard now to get it up and running. CG: In January 2024, the AI Advisory Council met for the first time. How will the establishment of the AI Advisory Council bridge the gap between the public and an understanding of AI, which can ultimately lead to a better understanding of AI by decisionmakers? DC: We had just under 400 applications to be on it [the advisory council]. There is an extraordinary level of talent on AI within the country. It is going to offer strong advice. It is going to offer independent advice. I met the Advisory Council, but I did not sit in on their meeting because have been very clear, we want it to be independent.

I would ask policymakers to listen to what the Advisory Council comes up with and to engage with the work it is going to produce. I see it as having an ESRI style role, without the budget, in terms of advice and issues. They are all voluntary and we are terribly lucky to have them. Part of the role is to engage in communication, and I want them to demystify it [AI technology] and come back to the principles: is it trustworthy; is it person-centred; is it ethical? In terms of the communications campaign, they will have a role in advising that as well. But I want them to focus on policy as well, focused on the specific challenges of it. Ultimately, they are in charge of their own workplan which will then be given to government for sign off. CG: Upon the news that the EU AI Act was endorsed by all member states in February 2024 and will enter into force in the coming months, you reiterated your ambition for Ireland to “become a leading country in using AI to the benefit of our people”. What does that look like? DC: Healthcare. Education. General government services. That we have an innovation culture as well. As the new products and new services come out of Ireland, it is important that we have sandboxed structures in place here for AI companies to test technologies and future uses. That our citizens have trust in AI and that our citizens benefit from the AI Act, but equally our innovators are confident in producing the new products on the island here. CG: What are your ambitions for the year ahead? DC: Our focus at the moment is the DSA, it has been since Christmas. I want to get the communications campaign up and running AI, and to make sure that the Advisory Council gets bedded in.

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Every party should lay out their stall on AI and how they see it being utilised over the course of the next five years.

Ireland is the current chair of the D9+ Group [an informal alliance of digital ministers from the digital frontrunner EU member states]. We are hosting the D9+ events in Dublin in the middle of April 2024, so we are preparing for that at the moment. As I said, there will be elections across Europe on the weekend of 7 June 2024, but I also want to see discussion on the digital priorities for the next five years in Europe, not just the next five months. CG: How can Fianna Fáil stamp its identity on the coalition government’s digital policy? DC: Firstly, it [digital policy] is government, and it is crossgovernment. I have mentioned two of my colleagues – Simon Harris and Ossian Smyth – from the two other coalition parties. That is why I am challenging my colleagues in Fianna Fáil to focus on the policy implications of AI and of digital. I am very determined that in the course of our next Fianna Fáil election manifesto, it will have a digital policy element. I have been really focused. We have made changes through [Finance Minister] Michael McGrath TD in terms of the taxation around angel investors. We had a really good Fianna Fáil session with members of the start-up community and business organisations, with Michael McGrath, ahead of the budget [2024] where he heard their proposals directly from them and they were implemented in the budget. Equally, I am gathering a lot of ideas and thoughts that will be in a Fianna Fáil digital manifesto at the next election. I am very focused. We are all focused on campaigning with AI and what AI will do to campaigns. Let’s focus on governing. Where will AI go in the next five years?

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Empowering people with intelligent automation

Ailish Hansen, Chief Commercial Officer of Fexco Managed and Advisory Services.

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Ailish Hansen, Chief Commercial Officer of Fexco Managed and Advisory Services, explores the rapid technological advancements and challenges in customer-facing sectors and the integration of AI in the public sector. The pace of technological change has emerged as a disruptive yet profoundly progressive force, particularly in the realm of customer-facing services within both the private and public sectors. The influence of current technological change mirrors the transformative effect of the smartphone on global connectivity: connecting was always possible, but never with such speed, ease, and accessibility. For decades, our corporate and personal lives have been enriched by technological change. We source information and fact-check data using search engines by default; we consume knowledge in digital format as the norm. As we anticipate the latest technological trend of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and

Fresh Thinking

robotic process automation, collectively referred to as intelligent automation, 2024 emerges as a milestone year where we will further equip our people, products, and services with AI-enabled features and utilities, aptly named “Intelligent People supported by Intelligent Automation”.

However, this journey is not without its hurdles. The integration of cutting-edge technologies into public and private sector service delivery raises critical questions about privacy, security, and the digital divide. As we approach this new future, we discuss how AI can aid customer service providers and what customers should keep in mind.

Be curious, but exercise caution and manage expectations Curiosity is one of Fexco’s core values. We have never been afraid to explore and expand into new areas, a mindset that has served us very well. We are now applying this approach to AI and its potential use. As the world around us evolves, so do the tools and technology at our disposal. AI, IoT, and quantum computing are current disruptors, with more to come.

Recently, Metamo, Fexco’s joint venture with 16 of Ireland’s largest credit unions, has designed, implemented, and launched a new personal lending automation solution based on quantum AI to digitise the loan application process. Tens of thousands of loan applications processed now receive automated, immediate AI-driven loan decisions based on large data historical trends and patterns.

Humans prefer humans; focus on “supporting”, not “replacing” As an operator of services on behalf of both the public and private sectors that interacts with millions of individuals and businesses in Ireland annually, Fexco has a clear view of what makes a good user experience and what customers want. We see AI as a support for users, assisting with data analysis and generating intelligent responses in natural language to questions, prompts, or interactions. We will continue to focus on personalisation – but at scale. There is a fear that AI will eventually take jobs from humans. But human oversight will always be needed and desired. As Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, says: “Humans care about what other humans think.” People will still be needed to make

Trust is your currency Trust and certainty are crucial elements in the effective use of AI. In the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-powered products and services, trust is not just a benefit – it is the very currency of success. When users entrust their decisions, personal information, or business processes to an AI system, they are essentially investing their confidence in the technology’s reliability, accuracy, and fairness. This trust is hard-earned and easily lost. Users need assurance that their data is handled carefully, from the transparency and clarity of the AI’s decision-making process to its consistent performance and adherence to ethical standards, supported by robust privacy and data security all play a pivotal role in building trust. Without it, AI solutions may find themselves struggling to gain traction in a world where consumer and enterprise users are becoming ever more discerning about where and how they place their digital trust. With 30 years of experience of being curious, interacting with millions of individuals and businesses, and building trusted partnerships, Fexco Managed and Advisory Services offers tailored solutions to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and improve customer experiences and we have truly embraced the next technological advances in AI to ensure benefits are realised for both our partners and ourselves. But remember, AI supports, not replaces, human oversight. Trust remains the key to AI’s effective use.

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Our support functions have long utilised AI, from researching and creating initial drafts of marketing materials to providing AI assistants to support code development and test case creation for our IT engineers.

We understand the importance of caution with AI. While it adds value, it is not a universal solution for all our problems. Expectations must be realistic. AI is not infallible. Quality control and good judgment are still essential. Fexco has robust risk management protocols in place. Understanding the limitations of AI is key to making the most of it.

decisions. AI will support this, but it will not replace the need for human oversight.

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Fexco has been using intelligent automation for a while, but in the past 18 months, we have embraced new AI advancements. Worldwide, businesses, governments, and institutions are also realising the potential of these technologies to streamline operations, boost efficiency, and provide better services to people.

Following the successful rollout of robotic process automation (RPA) projects within Fexco in recent years, and the rollout of new generative AI utilities in the last year to support our colleagues in enhancing efficiency, accessing knowledge, and improving overall business outcomes, we are now exploring new use cases across financial services, HR, health and safety, tourism, housing, and energy sectors. These are designed to enhance productivity and efficiency, improve data analysis and insights, be scalable, and adhere to all required governance and security controls.

W: www.fexco.com

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Fresh Thinking

AI strategy: Progress comes with need for overhaul The implementation report on the AI: Here for Good strategy outlines that important first steps are being taken to roll out AI. However, with new guidance and regulations emerging on AI, it is likely that there will need to be an overhaul to the strategy. AI: Here for Good is the State’s national AI strategy. Established in July 2021, it was founded on three core principles: adopting a human-centric approach to the application of AI; staying open and adaptable to new innovations; and ensuring good governance to build trust and confidence for innovation to flourish. The National AI Strategy itself is divided into eight strands, under three broad headings: •

•

Building public trust in AI: 1.

Strand One: AI and society

Strand Two: A Government ecosystem that promotes trustworthy AI

Leveraging AI for economic and social benefit 1.

Strand Three: Driving adoption of AI in Irish enterprise

Strand Four: AI serving the public

Enablers for AI 1.

Strand Five: A strong AI information ecosystem

Strand Six: AI education, skills, and talent

Strand Seven: A supportive and secure infrastructure for AI

Strand Eight: Implementing the strategy

The report on the implementation of the strategy to date lists the actions taken to date under each strand.

Fresh Thinking AI and society Of the five strategic objectives under the AI and society strand of the strategy, three have been completed, with the implementation report claiming that two objectives are “in progress”. The Government completed the goal of appointing a national AI Ambassador, with the appointment of Patricia Scanlon in May 2022. The implementation report states that a full report on Scanlon’s activities over the first year will be published separately.

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With the objective of education young people about the benefits of and precautions pertaining to the use of AI, the implementation report classifies this strand as completed, owing to the establishment of the National Youth Assembly on AI, which was done in October 2022.

An AI governance ecosystem The report assesses that, with collaboration at an EU level to discuss regulations throughout the Union, the objective of establishing a “horizontal framework” for the governance of AI is “in progress”. In December 2023, the European Commission outlined a draft EU AI Act, although reception of this regulation has been mixed among computing and systems experts, as there is a perception that AI is too complex and nuanced in different sectors for a single regulatory framework to be an effective way of governing it.

“Changes to the world of work are to be expected, but it is likely that much of the disruption caused by AI will result in changes to job roles, tasks, and distribution, rather than actual job losses.” Minister of State Dara Calleary, TD AI in the private sector If it can be successfully integrated into private sector operations, it is likely that use of AI will lead to enhanced levels of economic growth. However, these positive projections have been mirrored by questions as to whether increased use of AI will lead to job losses. The Enterprise Digital Advisory Forum, established in May 2022, brings together representatives of indigenous enterprises, multi-national enterprises, and experts in digital technologies and their adoption by business, as well as representatives of government departments and agencies. The implementation report states that meetings of this forum to date have focused on “the building blocks of AI” and perspective digital transition to be taken by corporations, which include new skills challenges and prospective supports from government. The forum has included AI adoption by enterprise as one of its dedicated workstreams in its 2023 work programme. On meeting skills challenges, the report states that work is underway to find a successor to Technology 2022, Ireland’s third ICT skills action plan. The report further states that this successor plan will target digital skills right across the labour market and will take into account broader digital skills labour market priorities, as well as themes emerging from the Funding the Future and OECD Skills Review reports, the EU Structured Dialogue on Digital Education and Skills, as well as ongoing close collaboration with enterprise. Upon publication of the implementation report, Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital Transformation and Company Regulation at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Dara Calleary TD, said: “The pace of advancements is rapid and over recent months AI has really entered the public consciousness and discourse. There are concerns, both real and perceived, and we must address these to ensure that we are not letting opportunities pass us by. We must ensure that we are having open and informed conversations on AI and all its potential. “Changes to the world of work are to be expected, but it is likely that much of the disruption caused by AI will result in changes to job roles, tasks, and distribution, rather than actual job losses.” 45

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How generative AI can transform public services

Peter Rose, Group CTO.

Nick Connors, Group MD.

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Generative AI is a branch of artificial intelligence that can create new content, such as text, images, audio, or video. It can learn from patterns, styles, rules and preferences, and generate novel and realistic outputs.

Generative AI has many applications in various domains, such as entertainment, education, art, and design, but it can also have a significant impact on public services.

efficiency, reducing costs, and enhancing quality and its use has been approved by Cabinet, provided it follows the guidance on the use of AI in the public service issued by Paschal Donohoe.

Public services face continuous challenges such as limited resources, complex regulations, and high demand. The good news is that generative AI can help overcome some of these challenges by automating tasks, improving

In this article, we will explore how generative AI can help public services from central government to healthcare improve quality and increase service provision and examine the benefits and challenges of using this technology.

“TEKenable subscribe to Accessing generative AI in a safe, private, and secure way does not have to be difficult. Microsoft offers co-pilots in Office 365 as well as Dynamics 365 which support the users in the activities below and more beside: •

Document summarisation – Applications, reports, emails, and conversation transcripts summarised for quick review, discover key ideas, actions, decisions, etc;

•

Document writing – Idea generation (writers block), drafting text, reviewing text for clarity/style, ageappropriate versions (“explain to me like I am five years old”), etc;

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Suggested responses – semiautomating the response to customer service cases, applications, and the never ending stream of email;

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Presentation generation – AI can create a PowerPoint presentation from a detailed document or your high-level notes capturing and structuring key concepts;

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Automating financial and other processes – Microsoft Business Central can use AI to automate bank reconciliation for example.

Unlocking institutional knowledge Probably the most frequently encountered challenge TEKenable sees is around access to institutional knowledge. Every organisation of any significant size has around 70 per cent of its institutional knowledge locked away in documents and only around 30 per cent in structured databases such as a finance systems and CRM. Each person that leaves the organisation takes a part of that knowledge with them and new joiners are more and more challenged to acquire that knowledge.

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a code of ethics that governs how we design and deploy AI services... By doing so we ensure that the AI performs as the best version of itself and complies with the Government guidelines and the EU AI Act requirements.

AI on your desktop

”

We have seen Chat With Your Documents successfully applied to areas as diverse as HR policies, financial regulatory rules, software support, customer service, sales and, in our own case, providing information about TEKenable’s past projects to support public tender writing and remembering lessons learned from the past.

What are the benefits and challenges of using generative AI? Generative AI has the potential to transform public services by offering many benefits, such as: •

increasing productivity and efficiency by automating tasks and reducing errors and delays;

•

enabling greater service provision without increasing resources;

•

enhancing quality and satisfaction by improving accuracy, relevance, diversity, and creativity; supporting decision-making and problem solving by providing insights, scenarios, and solutions; and

•

increasing engagement of users and stakeholders by offering personalisation and choice.

The ability to ask questions and receive answers from documents and other data sources is the next evolution of the search engine and unlocks knowledge that is presently locked away improving the user’s efficiency and providing information that can enhance the quality of their work.

However, generative AI also poses some challenges. Generative AI is not suitable for autonomous operations other than in some very tightly defined domains. It is better suited to acting in a supportive role, assisting and recommending rather than actioning. This is the human-in-theloop model with the AI referred to as a CoPilot.

Conclusion Generative AI is a powerful and promising technology that can transform public services. It offers many benefits, such as increasing productivity, reducing costs, enhancing quality, and supporting decision making. However, it also poses some challenges, such as ensuring reliability, security, ethics, accountability, and regulatory compliance. Therefore, it is important to use generative AI responsibly and wisely, and to balance the opportunities and risks of this technology. By doing so, we can harness the potential of generative AI to improve and increase the service provision for the public good.

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•

To address that challenge, TEKenable has created an AI application called Chat With Your Documents, which, as the name suggests, allows users to hold a conversation with a curated and authoritative set of documents.

TEKenable subscribes to a code of ethics that governs how we design and deploy AI services. This requires us to consider every aspect of the solution from the potential for bias to transparency and accountability. By doing so, we ensure that the AI performs as the best version of itself and complies with the Government guidelines and the EU AI Act requirements.

E: AI@TEKenable.com

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Fresh Thinking

‘World’s first’ AI regulation agreed at European level Political agreement has been reached between the European Parliament and Council of the European Union on the Artificial Intelligence Act, which has been hailed as “historic” and a “global first”.

The provisional deal for the EU AI Act, agreed in December 2023, will see rules on AI established, with safeguards, limitations, bans, and consumer rights put in place, and fines of up to 7 per cent of a company’s global turnover in place for those who violate the agreed laws.

High-impact general purpose AI models with systemic risk will have to conduct model evaluations, assess, and mitigate systemic risks, conduct adversarial testing, report serious incidents to the European Commission, ensure cybersecurity, and report on energy efficiency.

The agreed laws for AI will include “guardrails” for general AI systems to “account for the wide range of tasks AI systems can accomplish and the quick expansion of its capabilities”. These guardrails will see all general-purpose AI systems and the general-purpose AI models upon which they are based forced to adhere to transparency requirements that were proposed by the European Parliament during negotiations, such as the drawing up of technical documentation, compliance with EU copyright law, and the dissemination of detailed summaries about the content used for AI training.

Other AI systems classified as high-risk due to their “significant potential harm to health, safety, fundamental rights, environment, democracy, and the rule of law” will be subject to mandatory fundamental rights impact assessments and other requirements applicable also to the insurance and banking sectors. Systems used to influence the outcome of elections and voter behaviour will also be classified as high risk, with citizens having the right to launch complaints against AI systems and receive explanations and decisions based on high-risk AI systems. On the other hand, limited risk AI systems will comply

Fresh Thinking

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with minimal transparency requirements “that would allow users to make informed decisions”.

•

biometric categorisation systems that use sensitive characteristics (e.g. political, religious, philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, race);

•

untargeted scraping of facial images from the internet or CCTV footage to create facial recognition databases;

•

emotion recognition in the workplace and educational institutions;

•

social scoring based on social behaviour or personal characteristics;

•

AI systems that manipulate human behaviour to circumvent their free will; and

•

AI used to exploit the vulnerabilities of people (due to their age, disability, social or economic situation).

The Parliament and Council of Ministers agreed on a series of exemptions for the use of biometric identification systems (RBI) in public spaces for law enforcement, “subject to prior judicial authorisation and for strictly defined lists of crime”. Post-remote RBI would be in use strictly for the targeted search for a person convicted or suspected of having committed a serious crime. Real-time RBI will comply with strict conditions, with its use limited in time and location for the purposes of: targeted searches for victims;

Credit: Jernej Furman

With explicit reference to “potential threat to citizens’ rights and democracy”, the Parliament and Council of Ministers also came to agreement in order to ban:

prevention of a specific and present terrorist threat; the localisation or identification of a person suspected of having committed one of the specific serious crimes mentioned in the regulation, such as murder, trafficking, or terrorism. These exemptions have proved the most controversial aspect of the legislation, with Amnesty International stating that the limited ban AI facial recognition sets a “devastating global precedent”. Ella Jakubowska, senior policy advisor for European Digital Rights stated: “It is hard to be excited about a law which has, for the first time in the EU, taken steps to legalise live public facial recognition across the bloc. Whilst the Parliament fought hard to limit the damage, the overall package on biometric surveillance and profiling is at best lukewarm. Our fight against biometric mass surveillance is set to continue.” Failure to comply with the new regulations will result in companies being fined, with penalties ranging from €35 million, or 7 per cent of global turnover, to €7.5 million, or 1.5 per cent of turnover depending on the infringement and the size of the offending company.

The legislation, which has been in the offing since early 2021, passed through multiple drafts as it made its way back and forth through the political arms of the European bloc. With all member states having endorsed the Act in February 2024, the Act will enter into force during 2024 and enter into application 24 months after its entry into force except for specific provisions, such as prohibitions on unacceptable risk AI systems applying after six months and obligations for high-risk systems applying after 36 months. The Act has been delayed in the past due to the constant evolution of AI technologies. For example, the rise of ChatGPT caused a reconsideration of the legislation that had originally been drawn up in April 2021, which had not factored in the application. In January 2024, it was revealed by Euractiv that the European Commission would adopt a decision establishing the European Artificial Intelligence Office as part of the reforms envisioned under the new legislation, with the office due to act within the Commission as the centralised authority on the enforcement of the AI Act and AI development, monitoring the progress of initiatives such as GenAI4EU. 49

artificial intelligence report

Building AI for the future Artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed industries and societies, offering unprecedented capabilities and efficiencies. However, as the use of AI proliferates, questions around how to create a robust and sustainable strategy for AI have come to the forefront, writes Davin Cody, Chief Technology Officer, HPE Ireland. Environmental impact The first thing that comes to mind when we talk about sustainability is the actual environmental impact, and unfortunately the carbon footprint of AI systems is not small. An AI project needs a clear strategy to not just ensure long-lasting benefits, but also maximum efficiency, including objectives like energy efficiency to mitigate environmental impact. This includes aspects related to the design of AI systems, covering technology infrastructure, through to monitoring and controlling. These decisions need to be aligned with the overall sustainability targets of the organisation to ensure that they can fulfil their commitments.

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Davin Cody, Chief Technology Officer, HPE Ireland.

Especially for those who are still at the beginning of their AI journey, it is difficult to get it right from the start. To get a better idea of how we can future-proof AI projects, we need to understand what aspects of the lifecycle of an AI project, model or platform are pivotal to their long-term success. Drawing from years of providing AInative infrastructure, designing energy-

efficient IT solutions, engaging with and supporting open-source projects, and being part of the AI Infrastructure Alliance, we at HPE learned that to ensure the viability of an AI project beyond momentary success, we need to look at four key aspects across the whole lifecycle: the environmental impact, longevity, agility, and reusability.

As you start to outline your project, make sure that the project team consist of representatives from stakeholder groups across the organisation as well as a spectrum of skill sets, including IT, data, and software engineering experts. The reason for the latter is that software engineering in particular aims at building efficient, sustainable, maintainable, and supportable applications. With operations being performed hundreds of millions of times (or more), for example during the AI model training and, a small performance hit has a big impact. The adoption of software engineering practices into your data science projects helps to avoid these challenges.

As mentioned above, without data there is no AI. This means it is essential to plan right from the start how data is going to be handled, deduplicated, and metadata stored. It is common for organisations to hoard data, gathering it all up because you do not know yet what is valuable. However, to stay efficient, it is important to have a clear data selection criteria and disposal processes, and core information on the data – where it came from, how it was transformed and by whom, why it was transformed, how long it was kept for and how it will be disposed of. This process should be part of your wider existing data strategy, to ensure your data is handled consistently and efficiently. Truly understanding your data will ensure that your model is robust and sustainable, also benefiting the longevity of your project.

System longevity

Agility One challenge you will encounter when building your AI system while aiming for agility is data debt, which can accumulate rapidly. In essence, this means if you do not keep on top of its classification, any problem gets bigger exponentially. Therefore, it is essential that you follow a process, to keep your AI systems in up to date.

Model reusability Model reuse and pretrained models are great ways of tackling complex challenges. They allow you to avoid additional AI tuning, which, as we already touched on above, can have serious impact on cost and carbon footprint. It is essential to have a detailed plan to ensure you get the most out of your models. At the same time, it is important to keep in mind that the conceptualising an AI model for reusability increases development costs in the short term. Especially when building interdependent AI systems, the management of these systems can turn into a time- and resource consuming

challenge. Therefore, building AI with a firm plan and purpose is key. To summarise, it is crucial, when building AI systems, that we architect them with the future in mind. By prioritising future-oriented and efficient AI practices, we can contribute to a more sustainable planet while harnessing the transformative power of AI. As we navigate the intersection of technology and environmental consciousness, the pursuit of environmentally sustainable AI represents a commitment to building a future where innovation coexists harmoniously with the well-being of our planet.

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With the goal being to build AI that offers continuous benefits, it is vital to create it with long-term aims in mind that align to your AI strategy. If designed for the short-term use or goals only, you will soon need to train it again or build a new one, increasing costs and your overall carbon footprint, with model tuning being the most resource intensive part of an AI lifecycle. However, if designed to tackle real and long-term business challenges, you will derive more value from the projects with a lower impact.

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The efficiency advantages will become apparent with the implementation of machine learning operations (MLOps). MLOps can help save time, resources and reduce carbon output by minimising the number of steps that must be carried out manually, therefore making it repeatable through automation. As with all software engineering, AI has a defined lifecycle, comprising a collection of steps that moves an idea through to production deployment. AI breaks down into five key activities within this lifecycle: data processing, pipelining, model development and optimisation, model deployment, and monitoring. Having a clear strategy on these will enable effective automation for repeatability, and saves time and resources, leading to a successful and more efficient AI project.

To find out more about how you can build sustainable AI, check out our video series at https://www.hpe.com/uk/en/solutions/artifici al-intelligence/nvidiacollaboration.html#SustainableAIEpisodes.

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Fresh Thinking

Ireland’s long journey to ‘trustworthy AI’ Ahead of recent agreement on a new European AI Act, the Government has approved guidance for the use of AI in the public sector. However, the journey to achieve robust and effective regulation has faced significant challenges along the way. Statements obtained from government departments by eolas Magazine (issue 61) outlined how there has been no single, unified approach taken by government departments for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the public sector. Therefore, the Government has instructed that departments and public bodies should comply with seven requirements for ethical AI that have been developed by the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on AI in its Ethical Guidelines for Trustworthy AI document. In the document, the Government outlines the seven overriding principles which will shape how AI is used in the public sector. These are:

human agency and oversight;

technical robustness and safety;

privacy and data governance;

transparency;

diversity, non-discrimination and fairness;

societal and environmental well-being; and

accountability.

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The guidelines, which were shaped by work carried out by the High Level Expert Group on AI, state that public sector AI systems may be developed either in house or procured from a third vendor. In either case, however, the guidelines clarify that there is a high level of responsibility for public sector bodies and departments to ensure that AI is trustworthy and ethical, and that this responsibility rests with the system user rather than the developer, thereby protecting private sector providers and developers. This point is underlined by the directive that this responsibility “cannot be delegated”.

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This point is further emphasised by the stipulation that ethics considerations must be built into requirement specifications of systems, and that specific test cases must be written and signed off by senior management of the public sector organisation. The guidelines further outline that subject matter experts should be part of the design process for an AI system and have “an important role to play in ensuring that all service users that will be affected by the system are treated fairly”.

Challenges along the journey Regulating AI remains a difficult challenge for decision-makers, as it is a sector for which a one-size-fits-all approach is not applicable due to the different needs of the various strands of the public sector. Speaking to eolas Magazine in February 2024, Government Chief Information Officer Barry Lowry said that he was “very pleased to note the progress made with the EU AI Act”. “I think it has evolved well to now provide a very good balance between meaningful AI use and risk and privacy management. I look forward to its enactment,” Lowry said As the EU AI Act was being drafted, Lowry had warned in a previous interview with eolas Magazine (issue 60) that “there is a risk that misunderstood attempts to regulate AI are viewing AI as an entity, but it is not about AI as an entity, it is about how you use it”. Lowry had further warned of the potential risks of introducing legislation “without a real understanding of what it is that is being regulated” and “without talking about shared risk”. Development of AI legislation has faced further challenges amid opposition from government TDs to the development of facial recognition technology (FRT), as some decision-makers have suggested that this may involve invasion of citizens’ rights to privacy.

Maintaining trust In an effort to acknowledge these points of concern raised by various stakeholders around data privacy, the government stipulates that GDPR requirement will be enforced when data is being used in AI models. Under GDPR legislation, permission must be sought to use personally identifiable information, which includes facial images and voice. “Data should not be used in AI models in a way that breaches intellectual property rights. Where the system is procured from a third-party vendor, they must confirm that their data is GDPR compliant and does not breach the intellectual property rights of others,” the guidelines state. Speaking following the publication of the new guidelines for AI in the public sector, Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform Paschal Donohoe TD said: “AI presents significant opportunities to improve the delivery of public services and to assist in tackling many of the complex challenges we face. Our government and public service must not shy away from the opportunities presented by AI because of the potential risks involved. “The guidance issued… will help public servants avail of those opportunities in a way that is ethical and maintains trust. AI is changing our world significantly and it is important we face that change directly and adapt quickly as required to both protect and deliver for the people we serve.”

What are the possibilities and opportunities for AI in Irish public sector? artificial intelligence report

instant responses to enquiries, guiding them through various processes and offering personalised assistance. This not only improves the citizen experience but also alleviates the workload on public service staff. AI plays a vital role in supporting IT operations. By integrating AI with existing IT infrastructure, public sector organisations can modernise legacy applications, making them more efficient, scalable, and responsive to current needs. This modernisation is crucial for improving service delivery, enhancing user experience, and ensuring that public sector IT systems can adapt to the rapidly changing technological landscape. These examples represent a true AIdriven paradigm shift, yet underscore its role as a supportive tool, emphasising the importance of human oversight in decision-making. The integration of AI in these areas can lead to more informed policies, improved public services, and a more proactive approach to addressing the challenges faced by the public sector in Ireland.

Nathan Marlor, Head of Data and AI, Version 1.

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AI presents transformative opportunities for the Irish public sector, profoundly impacting how services are delivered both internally within organisations and externally to citizens, writes Nathan Marlor, Head of Data and AI, Version 1. By supporting and augmenting human capabilities, AI streamlines internal operations, leading to more efficient administrative processes and decisionmaking. Simultaneously, it enhances the delivery of services to citizens, offering more personalised, efficient, and accessible public services. For example, in policymaking, AI’s capability to analyse extensive datasets

What advice would you give to organisations getting started and what do you see as the challenges to implementing AI?

can provide deep insights, expediting and enriching the decision-making process. This can be particularly valuable in areas like social welfare, economic planning, and public health strategies, where understanding complex patterns and trends is crucial.

Starting with smaller, manageable projects that align with specific organisational needs can demonstrate AI’s potential without overwhelming the workforce. These projects can serve as accelerators or kickstarts for broader AI adoption. It is important to remember that “small” in this context does not necessarily mean insignificant; even modest AI initiatives can yield substantial benefits.

In service delivery, AI-driven chatbots can revolutionise the way citizens interact with public sector services, providing

Once a problem statement has been identified, it is essential to secure highquality, relevant data, ensuring it is

organised in a manner which facilitates successful AI implementation. Data quality, availability, lineage, and security are critical factors, especially in the public sector, underscoring the importance of robust data management practices.

What skills and talent do you need to implement and manage AI in your organisation? The successful implementation and management of AI requires a diverse set of skills. Alongside technical expertise in AI, data science, and machine learning, it is crucial to have team members who understand the strategic and business implications of AI. This includes skills in project management, ethical decisionmaking, and the ability to translate complex AI concepts into practical business solutions. For organisations beginning their AI journey, a strategic partnership could accelerate activities by providing access to ready-made, crossfunctional teams of AI specialists. Additionally, fostering a culture of continuous learning and curiosity is essential, as the AI field is rapidly evolving. Teams should be encouraged to stay abreast of the latest trends and developments, ensuring the organisation’s AI initiatives remain cutting-edge and relevant.

Legacy system modernisation remains a major challenge for many organisations. As systems age, their understanding and support diminishes, often exacerbated by outdated or incomplete documentation. This lack of clarity in how applications function presents a significant risk to modernisation efforts, a factor frequently overlooked.

What are the pitfalls of over-dependency on AI in public sectors and what checks should be in place to avoid this? Over-dependency on AI in the public sector can lead to a loss of critical human oversight and an increased risk of systemic biases. To mitigate these risks, it is important to establish a balanced approach where AI complements human decision-making. Regular reviews of AI decisions by human experts, diverse and unbiased training data for AI systems, and transparent AI development processes are essential. Furthermore, maintaining an organisational culture that values human judgment and ethical considerations alongside AI advancements is key to avoiding overdependency.

focusing on foundational skills alongside AI training, employees can maintain a strong skill set that keeps them versatile and capable, irrespective of the level of AI assistance available.

Are there risks with not adopting AI? There are many potential risks of not adopting AI in today’s technology-driven landscape, potentially hindering the ability of public sector organisations to keep pace with evolving challenges and technological advancements. One key area is increased security risk; AI technologies can be powerful in identifying and responding to cyber threats promptly, ensuring the protection of sensitive government data. Datadeluge for public sector is also a risk; without AI, it becomes challenging to extract meaningful insights from big data, limiting the ability to identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement. Finally, many societal challenges, such as healthcare management, environmental issues, and urban planning, can benefit from AI solutions. Without the adoption of AI, public sector organisations may struggle to develop effective strategies to address these ever more complex challenges.

E: nathan.marlor@version1.com W: www.version1.com

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How do you see AI impacting how IT services are delivered, including the modernisation of legacy systems?

The cost of not modernising results in increased support costs, increased risk due to out-of-support technology and reduced business agility and budget available to work on more transformative IT programs. AI offers a unique opportunity to unleash legacy system modernisation due to its unparalleled abilities to accelerate the many phases of the modernisation process. From documenting existing applications, assisting code conversion and development, to automating test case and data generation, AI will bring transformative productivity improvements.

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Organisations should adopt a holistic approach where people and processes are seen as important as the technology itself. Key to any successful AI transformation is addressing core concerns like data privacy, ethics, governance, and reassuring the workforce that AI is a tool for enhancement rather than replacement from the outset.

“Over-dependency on AI in the public sector can lead to a loss of critical human oversight and an increased risk of systemic biases. To mitigate these risks, it is important to establish a balanced approach where AI complements human decision-making.”

It is also important to implement continuous skills development programs that ensure employees retain the core competencies necessary to perform their roles effectively, even in the absence of AI support. These programs should be designed to maintain and enhance traditional skills, ensuring that the workforce is not overly reliant on AI for basic tasks and decision-making. By

artificial intelligence report

Fresh Thinking

AI in the workplace A permanent joint committee on artificial intelligence (AI) should be established in the Oireachtas, TDs and senators have recommended. The recommendation to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment was one of several by the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment contained within a report focused on AI in the workplace. In addition, the committee has also recommended the establishment of a special committee to examine the broader scope of AI beyond an employment perspective, recognising the far reach of the topic. In an interview with eolas Magazine, Minister of State with reponsibility for Digital in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Dara Calleary TD, stated his belief that the proposals were “worth pursuing” but that the matter was for the Oireachtas to decide. In the meantime, in January 2024 the AI Advisory Council, designed to provide independent expert advice to government on artificial intelligence policy, sat for the first time.

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Alongside the recommendation to establish a Joint Oireachtas Committee on AI, the Committee’s report also called for: •

comprehensive discussions and regulatory measures at a forum level that safeguard both workers’ rights and employer interests on an inclusive basis with all stakeholders;

•

enhanced safeguards for digital manipulation to be considered for consumers and workers when transposing the AI Act;

•

measures to provide for transparency in the tracking of employee activities, recognising existing concerns around potential abuse of workplace surveillance technology; and

•

that the minister revisits the representation on the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment’s GovTech forum board. The recommendation references inclusion of an employment perspective, strongly advocating for trade union representation, and other bodies such as legal, regulatory, governmental, and tech industry experts.

The Committee’s work comes in the context of the forthcoming European Union AI Act, which as part of its digital strategy, will seek to regulate AI to ensure better conditions for the development and use of innovative technology.

On 2 February 2024, the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act was unanimously approved at a meeting of the Council of the European Union (Council of Ministers). The Act must now pass through a European Parliament plenary vote which is expected on either 10 or 11 April 2024.

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Almost half the labour force is expected to be impacted by changes to their jobs due to automation by 2040, according to an OECD report on Wellbeing in the Digital Age published in 2019. The scope of the committee’s report was particularly focused on the finding that up to 14 per cent of all jobs are at high risk of being lost due to automation, with another 32 per cent at risk of significant change over the next 10 to 20 years.

The Committee’s report focuses on key areas in relation to the workplace, most prominently, surveillance methods deployed by employers, such as webcams, keystroke logging. Highlighting research carried out by the Financial Services Union (FSU), which outlines the importance of research and legislation keeping pace with these changes so society, businesses, and staff can both benefit and the be protected from unforeseen consequences. “The Committee noted the need to establish clear levels of workplace surveillance, understanding that some regulation might be necessary to prevent excessive intrusion,” the report states. It adds: “The Committee note[s] from the report that evidence of AI-driven constant monitoring marks a significant shift, where employers can track employee activities without their awareness. The Committee support the need for transparency in this tracking.” Another theme of the report was around the ‘right to disconnect’, with the Committee noting that “the current pervasive surveillance is generating an ‘always on’ work culture,” which it describes as “problematic”. “The Committee is concerned that monitoring practices being undertaken might not necessarily correlate with increased productivity and acknowledges there could be various reasons behind employers’ surveillance practices,” it says.

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A pathway to AI Adoption for the Irish public sector

John Stobie, Regional Vice President of Public Sector Sales for Salesforce Ireland.

AI is the topic on everyone’s lips today, writes John Stobie, Regional Vice President of Public Sector Sales for Salesforce Ireland. Advertorial

As I sit down to work on this piece, I am listening to Patricia Scanlan, the Chair of the AI Advisory Council in Ireland, sitting for an interview on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland about the many challenges and benefits of AI. A day seldom goes by without a news story about the evolution of this technology. Generative AI and its rapid ascension to the top of the technology stack has thrown a spotlight on a capability that Salesforce customers have been using, for over a decade. In this article, we focus on the fact that 58

AI is not an end itself, but that used correctly it can energise transformation and innovation within the public sector. AI is an accelerator which can personalise services and engagement, increase the productivity of government staff, and drive impact by allowing the targeting of limited resources to deliver the best outcomes. Governments face ever-growing pressure to improve the efficiency and personalisation of their services and overall interactions with citizens. According to a study by the Boston Consulting Group and Salesforce, “93 per cent of respondents

expect government's service quality to be on par with leading tech companies, private sector and digital governments”. We will discuss AI under a number of headings: •

If AI is the engine, data is the fuel;

•

In the flow of work; and

•

Trust is paramount.

Ultimately, we must understand that AI is not a silver bullet and to get the benefits of this technology, like any, we need to walk before we run.

“Ultimately, we must understand that AI is not a silver bullet and to get the benefits of this technology, like any, we need to walk before we run.” John Stobie, Regional Vice President of Public Sector Sales, Salesforce Ireland.

It is important to recognise the symbiotic relationship between data and AI. Ultimately, it is not enough to just amass lots of data, it must also be connected and structured. Salesforce’s citizen relationship management (CRM) is built with the citizen at its heart, and information about that individual wraps around it. This includes key attributes, benefit history, touch points, and other key data elements that not only provide agency employees with a rich view of their customers, but also serve as inputs to AI models. However, not all data about the citizen sits in the CRM. Within any agency, dozens of other systems contain citizen data, including ERPs, payment systems, document repositories, and more. To join up this broader set of data elements, Salesforce’s Data Cloud enables agencies to connect and haronise data from other systems in real-time. With powerful identity resolution and graphical mapping capabilities, Data Cloud delivers the essential foundation to both traditional and AI-enabled citizen services. This complete 360° view of the citizen supports improved interactions and also better utilisation by AI models. Just recently, one of our global postal customers revolutionised their digital marketing and customer experiences with AI and data-driven communications. Salesforce Data Cloud has been transformational to the business, taking over 11.5 million contacts and turning that into 3.3 million unified profiles, with rich engagements and transactional data, within six working days.

In the flow of work

Equally, the result should be returned in a way that is immediately useful to the agent. For instance, a draft email to a citizen should show up in the drafting screen itself, so the agent can easily make edits before sending. By embedding the technology, it also allows for seamless and automatic upgrades, including new technologies and capabilities. This has always been the Salesforce approach to innovation, delivering three annual functional releases for nearly a quarter of a century.

Trust is paramount Government must handle citizen data with the utmost care and ensure services are delivered with fairness and precision. This requires an understanding of the risks associated with AI and how to control them. Salesforce have outlined five trusted AI principles to guide both our own development and our customers’ use of these technologies. The use of AI must be: responsible, accountable, transparent, empowering, and inclusive. Salesforce’s Trust Layer helps to mitigate these risks, including protecting personal and sensitive information by not feeding it into the model, controlling for toxicity and hallucinations on the return, including with a human in the loop to review the output before it goes to the citizen, and memorialising the use of any AIgenerated output. These are minimum-but-notsufficient measures; however, any commercial AI solution should incorporate such controls. Experimentation to acquire institutional knowledge and understand the nature of such risks is crucial to safe and successful deployment at scale.

AI is accessible wherever you are on your transformation journey AI continues to evolve rapidly. Customers should look to the old mantra, “think big, start small, scale fast”. Wherever you are on your AI journey, it is essential to understand the maturity of your organisation for the adoption of this technology. To help you get going, talk with us about our AI vision and capability assessment tool (VCAT).

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To derive the greatest value from AI, it should act as an enabler within a process, rather than as its own functional area. When embedded into existing systems and business workflows, it ensures easy access for employees and customers alike, and minimises the implementation and maintenance work required from IT. It is important to not only feed an AI model a training set and prompt, but also the broader context for that prompt. This is known as ‘grounding’, where the surrounding information about the work item and the customer are fed to the model alongside the prompt.

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If AI is the engine, data is the fuel

T: 0800 086 8949 E: jstobie@salesforce.com W: www.salesforce.com

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Fresh Thinking

AI exposure risk equal to opportunity

“Waves of innovation have usually been accompanied by anxiety about the future of jobs,” the report reads. “This apprehension persists, even though history suggests that previous fears about labour becoming redundant were exaggerated.” However, in its surveying of various reports and a sample of 16 European countries, the ECB finds “a positive association between AI-enabled automation and changes in employment shares” regardless of which proxy the report authors used. Using the work of Stanford University economist Michael Webb, the ECB states that moving 25 centiles up along the distribution of exposure to AI is associated with a 2.6 per cent increase in sector-occupation employment share; the work of Edward Felten, Manav Raj, and Robert Seamans estimates the increase in sector-occupation employment share to be 4.3 per cent.

“The degree of exposure is as much an opportunity as it is a risk.”

On the possibility of technology-enable automation affecting relative shares of employment across skill levels and thus impacting earnings inequality, the ECB states that “literature on job polarisation shows that medium-skilled workers in routine-intensive jobs tended to be replaced by computerisation… in contrast, it is often argued that AI-enabled automation is more likely to complement or replace jobs in occupations that employ high-skilled labour”. The literature also suggests that AI exposure “does not seem to shake things up significantly” in occupations where average educational attainment is in the low and medium-skill groups. In contrast, a “positive and significant association” is found for the high-skill group: with the distribution of exposure to AI increased by 25 centiles, the boost to sector-occupation employment is estimated at 3.1 per cent by Webb and 6.7 per cent by Felten, Raj, and Seamans. By age group, AI-enabled automation favours those occupations that employ younger workers, who were found to benefit at double the rate of their older colleagues (when age groups are split into younger, core, and older) regardless of the indicators used. In their own research, the authors of the ECB report – Stefania Albanesi, António Dias da Silva, Juan Francisco Jimeno, Ana Lamo, and Alena Wabitsch – study the link between AI-enabled technologies and employment shares in 16 European countries between 2011 and 2019, years that “saw the rise of deep learning applications such as language processing, image recognition, algorithm-based recommendations, or fraud detection”. The authors find that around 25 per cent of all jobs in these countries were in occupations highly exposed to AI-enabled automation, “specifically in the upper third of the exposure measure”.

Credit: Rawpixel

A report by the European Central Bank (ECB) has stated that projections of AI ending human labour “may be greatly exaggerated”, and that occupations “potentially more exposed” to AIenabled technologies increased their employment share in Europe during the 2010s.

Fresh Thinking

artificial intelligence report

“The degree of exposure is as much an opportunity as it is a risk,” the report states, with the outcome dependent on whether such technologies will substitute or complement labour. Occupations more exposed to AI were found to employ a larger proportion of highskilled workers when compared to occupations more exposed to advances in software, a fact that “supports the case that AI-enable technologies could be in competition with high-skilled jobs”. With the exposure to technology varying across levels of skills, it is found to be “relatively uniform” across age groups. These findings mean that AI-enabled automation is “thus associated with employment increases in Europe – mostly for high-skill occupations and younger workers”, a fact which is “at odds with the evidence from previous technology waves, when computerisation decreased the relative share of employment of medium-skilled workers, resulting in polarisation”. The authors state that they found no evidence for this polarisation pattern in their own work, “even when examining the impact of software-enabled automation”, and that the relationship between software exposure and employment changes is null for their pooled sample, with no evidence of software replacing “routine medium-skilled jobs”. Despite these results for employment shares, the authors also found that neither AI nor software exposure had statistically significant effects on wages, except in the work of Felten, Raj, and Seamans, which “indicates that occupations more exposed to AI have slightly worse wage growth”. The results also show “a mixed picture” across the 16 European countries studied, with the overall positive impact found in the overall research said to “hold true for most countries with only a few exceptions”. The scale of the impact is, however, said to vary substantially across the country, which “might reflect differences in underlying economic factors” such as technology diffusion, education, and levels of regulation and competition in product and labour markets. Despite the common fear that technological development brings with it pressure on the labour market and the widespread possibility of jobs being automated into obsolescence, the authors conclude that, during the deep learning boom of the 2010s at least, “occupations potentially more exposed to AI-enabled technologies actually increased their employment share in Europe”, with occupations with a higher proportion of younger and skilled workers gaining the most and neutral to slightly negative impacts on wages. “These results do not amount to an acquittal: AI-enabled technologies continue to be developed and adopted,” the authors state. “Most of their impact on employment and wages – and therefore on growth and equality – has yet to be seen.”

artificial intelligence report

Should we be prepared for AI-based critical infrastructure attacks? AI may change the threat landscape essentially in three ways: expanding existing threats, ushering in new threats, and shifting the nature of threats as we know it. Of specific concern is the potential for cyberattacks on critical infrastructure to become more widespread. Critical infrastructure, usually considered to include power generation and electrical grid, hospitals and healthcare systems, and the global supply chain, could also include digital supply chains and the internet itself.

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Depending on the specific needs, resources, and development level of a nation, critical infrastructure represents all the systems, networks, and assets that are essential, with their continued operation required to ensure the security of a given state, its economy, and the public’s health or safety. As the idea behind the attacks is to weaken adversaries by crippling their day-to-day business, an effective AI tool could, hypothetically, help bad actors commit attacks, or even increase the pool of potential attackers, by making malware coding easier. 62

With AI becoming increasingly important, just like companies, people race to figure out how it could be used to serve their own purposes, supporting their endeavours. Specifically in the field of cybersecurity, AI can serve both a destructive, but also a constructive role, with the former attempting to cripple cyber defences, and the latter enabling support of better cyber defences. With a legacy dating back to 1990, ESET has been a forerunner in the integration of AI into its security solutions. Recognising the evolving nature of cyber threats, it embraced the potential of AI early on, leveraging its capabilities to not only detect but also block threats in real-time, using machine learning to combat new threats, to ensure continuous threat intelligence updates through the early adoption of cloud technology that powers the global ESET LiveGrid reputation and response system. ESET employs two distinct

forms of advanced machine learning, comprising a high-powered detection engine in the cloud and a lightweight version deployed on the endpoint. These utilise a carefully selected set of classification algorithms, including deep learning and boosted trees, ensuring swift and precise analysis crucial for thwarting emerging threats. The latest enhancement to ESET software introduces an AI-powered detection correlation engine. This innovative feature automatically generates incidents, empowering security engineers to significantly minimise the time dedicated to investigation and incident management. AI represents a paradigm shift in cybersecurity. Security vendors aim to evolve by improving detection results and reducing false positive/negative rates. Leveraging the power of modern AI techniques helps not only stay ahead of emerging threats but also sets new standards for efficiency and accuracy in threat detection and response.

T: 053 914 6600 E: security@eset.ie W: www.eset.ie

Credit: DETE

artificial intelligence report

Fresh Thinking

New AI Advisory Council Headed up by Ireland’s AI Ambassador, Patricia Scanlon, the Government’s newly established 14-person AI Advisory Council met for the first time in January 2024. The AI Advisory Council was established under Strand 1 of AI: Here for Good, Ireland’s national AI strategy. Appointed by Minister of State with responsibility for Digital, Dara Calleary TD following a call for expressions of interest, the Advisory Council’s members “represent a spectrum of experience and expertise from academia, business, law, security, social sciences, economics, and civil society”. As the Advisory Council is not a consultative or representative forum, its members work on a voluntary basis and represent themselves as individuals with specific experience and expertise. It is intended, therefore, that the Advisory Council provides independent expert advice to government on AI policy via the Cabinet Committee on the Economy and Investment as well as to individual ministers, as requested. Tasked with meeting a minimum of three times annually, the Advisory Council is intended to “build on the mandate of the AI Ambassador and function as an agile sounding board for 64

government on ongoing and emerging artificial intelligence related developments”.

AI to the benefit of our people, through

The Advisory Council has three primary functions:

building blocks in place in our national

1. Responding to requests from government with expert guidance, insight, and recommendations on emerging AI trends;

The Minister of State also paid tribute

2. Developing and implementing a workplan to advise government on strategic priorities (emerging trends, opportunities, and challenges) in relation to AI policy; and

public service in volunteering to Chair

3. Engaging in public communications (including media interviews and public events) “aimed demystifying and promoting trustworthy, ethical, and person-centred AI”. These functions are to be undertaken with due regard for existing government policies.

a human centred and ethical approach to AI adoption and use. We have the AI strategy.”

to the work of Ireland’s AI Ambassador, Patricia Scanlon, since 2022: “I welcome her continued commitment to the AI Advisory Council. I also welcome the commitment of all the members of the Council in volunteering their time, experience and expertise.” For her part, the National AI Ambassador and chair of the Advisory Committee commented: “I look forward to leading the AI Advisory Council in providing timely, impactful recommendations and advice to Government. The members of the Council come from a range of

Following the first meeting of the Advisory Council, Minister of State Calleary asserted: “My ambition is that we become a leading country in using

backgrounds. Their collective insights will be hugely useful.”

Fresh Thinking

Deirdre Ahern

Patricia Scanlon is chair of the AI

Deirdre Ahern is a professor of law and

Advisory Council. She is Founder and

Director of the Technologies, Law and

Executive Chair of SoapBox Labs, a

Society Research Group at the School

leading provider of proprietary voice

of Law, Trinity College Dublin. She

technology for children. She holds a

previously led a research team at the

PhD and has over 20 years’ experience

artificial intelligence report

Patricia Scanlon

Law Reform Commission. She is a

working in speech recognition and AI technology,

member of the Royal Irish Academy’s Ethics, Politics,

including at Bell Labs and IBM. She has served as

Law and Philosophy Committee and a fellow of the

Ireland’s AI Ambassador since 2022.

Information Society Law Centre at the University of Milan.

Abeba Birhane

Bernard Harbor

Abeba Birhane is a cognitive scientist,

Bernard Harbor was formerly head of

currently a senior advisor in AI

communications and media relations at

accountability at Mozilla Foundation and

Fórsa, where he supervised research

an adjunct assistant professor at the

that underpinned the union’s policy on

School of Computer Science and

automation. He has a deep familiarity

Statistics at Trinity College Dublin. She

with industrial relations, the public

researches human behaviour, social systems, and

sector, and the Irish and international media. He has been

responsible and ethical AI. Birhane also serves on the

a member of the ICTU Executive Council and is currently

United Nations Secretary-General’s newly convened High

a Governor of the Irish Times Trust. He is a life fellow of

Level Advisory Body on AI.

the Public Relations Institute of Ireland (PRII) and a member of the board of TASC, Ireland’s think tank for action on social change.

Stephen Kinsella

Susan Leavy

Stephen Kinsella is full professor of

Susan Leavy is an assistant professor

economics and Head of the Department

with the School of Information and

of Economics at the University of

Communication Studies at University

Limerick. He directs UL’s Immersive

College Dublin with research interests in

Software Engineering programme. As an

artificial intelligence, language

economist with tech sector experience,

processing, social science, and AI

he also is a regular columnist with extensive experience

ethics. She is also one of Ireland’s nominees to the

on state boards.

Global Partnership in AI. Leavy is a funded investigator with Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics and is leading several projects on trustworthy AI.

Seán Mullaney Seán Mullaney is currently CTO of Algolia, an AI powered search and discovery platform which serves a range of industries. He actively advises Irish startups and founders as a venture board member at Elkstone and as an angel investor through the Sequoia Scout programme. He also serves on the board of Manna Drone Delivery.

4 65

Fresh Thinking

Ronan Murphy

Barry O’Sullivan

Ronan Murphy is founder and Executive

Barry O’Sullivan is an award-winning

Chairman of Smarttech247 (an AI

academic working in the fields of

powered cybersecurity enterprise) and is

artificial intelligence, constraint

founder of GetVisibility (an AI-driven

programming, operations research,

data security enterprise). He is an expert

AI/data ethics, and public policy. He

artificial intelligence report

in the areas of corporate and enterprise

contributes to several global Track II AI

security, development of cyber defence programs,

diplomacy efforts at the interface of military, defence,

business operations protection, and protection of critical

intelligence, and AI. He was vice chair of the European

infrastructure technologies.

Commission High-Level Expert Group on AI and is a member of the Digital Group at the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA).

Emma Redmond

Bronagh Riordan

Emma Redmond has a

Bronagh Riordan is Head of Data and Analytics

background at the intersection of

for Irish international retailer Primark, and Chair

technology and law including at

of the Industry Steering Board for CeADAR,

LinkedIn and Stripe and is

Ireland’s national centre for applied data

currently Associate General

analytics, artificial intelligence and machine

Counsel, Head of EU Privacy and

learning and Ireland’s digital innovation hub for

Data Protection at OpenAI and the first member of

Europe. She is also a UK and Ireland Chief Data Officer

the growing OpenAI team in Ireland. Redmond is

governing body member for Evanta. She has more than 20

an adjunct associate professor of law at University

years’ experience in data, analytics, and AI and prior to joining

College Dublin.

Primark, held senior positions across industry including Director of Global Analytics Centre of Excellence for Deutsche Bank, and Head of Data Science for CarTrawler.

Sasha Rubel

Barry Scannell

Sasha Rubel is Head of Public Policy for

Barry Scannell is a consultant in the

Artificial Intelligence and Machine

technology group of law firm William Fry,

Learning at Amazon Web Services

where his work is focused on AI law. He

(AWS) for Europe, Middle East, and

was previously Director of Legal Affairs

Africa. She previously worked at

and Regulatory Compliance at the Irish

UNESCO on AI and digital innovation, is

Music Rights Organisation. He has

involved in international AI governance initiatives, and is a

extensive experience in public communications around

member of the OECD AI Network of Experts.

AI, and in particular, advising on the legal implications of AI technologies. Scannell is currently finalising a PhD on AI and copyright in UCC.

Alan Smeaton Alan Smeaton is professor of computing at Dublin City University and was a founding director of Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy and an Academy Gold Medal winner. He has extensive experience in applications and innovations of AI in areas such as computer vision, machine learning, wearables, lifelogging, and educational analytics. He is experienced in giving scientific advice to government and actively participates in educational and public engagement activity, including media appearances. 66

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Enabling transitions – Emerging trends in infrastructure 2024

PENDR Minister Paschal Donohoe TD: ‘Capital funding at all-time high’ Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Paschal Donohoe TD outlines progress on National Development Plan (NDP) delivery to date, ongoing reforms in planning, developments in MMC, and further innovation in 2024. The National Development Plan 20212030 sets out a positive vision for Ireland, which delivers total public investment of €165 billion over its lifetime. This expenditure will be pivotal in delivering the vital infrastructure we need to support our future economic requirements, climate change commitments and address our social investment needs. The overall level of capital funding is now at an all-time high. In 2024, €13 billion will be made available for investment to provide more schools, homes, hospitals, and other vital infrastructure, that will make a real difference to people’s lives. An additional €2.25 billion of windfall corporate tax receipts is being allocated from 2024 to 2026, to be provided to critical infrastructure projects that are at an advanced stage as well as to the existing Climate Action Fund. Our economy continues to perform strongly with record numbers in employment despite inflationary pressures. I would note the moderation in inflation evidenced in wholesale

prices for construction products which increased by 0.3 per cent in the 12 months to December 2023. I would also like to highlight the significant progress being made under Housing for All, with over 32,000 new dwelling completions in 2023, which is a 10 per cent increase over 2022. The government recognises our thriving economy requires continued momentum in terms of increasing housing supply to meet our housing needs.

NDP delivery The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) published its report, The National Development Plan in 2023: Priorities and Capacity in January 2024. The report provides insights and recommendations on the NDP which I am considering in the context of updating NDP ceilings across different sectors for 2025 and 2026. This update will give certainty to government departments on the level of capital funding available to them over the medium term. My officials and I are currently engaging with departments on this process. I am cognisant of the

ESRI’s suggested approach in terms of prioritisation and the potential for the Government to direct construction activity towards those sectors where demand is highest. In September 2023, I published the Prospects 2023/2024 report which sets out a clear pipeline of 50 of the largest individual projects that make up Project Ireland 2040. This pipeline spans projects which are currently at planning and appraisal to projects which are completing construction in 2024. Another platform to communicate the range of projects and programmes under the NDP is the Project Ireland 2040 tracker and interactive map, which is updated every year. The tracker highlights the diverse range of infrastructure projects across Ireland and serves as a valuable resource for citizens, allowing them to track advancements and developments in their local area. The tracker and map are currently being updated by departments and agencies and will be released in Q1 2024. Since Project Ireland 2040 was first launched in 2018, the Government has

Find out more www.kpmg.ie/infrastructure “The overall level of capital funding is now at an all-time high. In 2024, €13 billion will be made available for investment...”

overseen the delivery of many impactful NDP projects across the country, including major third-level building projects such as the new university campus in Grangegorman, as well as better transport links, including upgrades on the N4 from Collooney to Castlebaldwin, from Gort to Tuam on the N17/N18 and the new N25 New Ross Bypass. In addition, hundreds of projects have been funded under the Rural and Urban Regeneration and Development Funds all across the country.

Ongoing reforms In July 2023, I announced further measures to tackle uncertainty and risk in the delivery of Public Works Contracts. This follows a series of measures introduced by my department over the last two years to address the challenges that the construction industry has recently faced. Notable modifications include the introduction of caps on liability and reform of the price variation mechanisms. In January 2024, I chaired a Project Ireland 2040 Delivery Board meeting where a range of issues, such as the backlog in planning applications and the restructuring of An Bord Pleanála to An Coimisiún Pleanála, were discussed. The Government is prioritising the Planning and Development Bill through the Oireachtas in 2024. The legislation introduces significant reforms in the judicial review processes, including the establishment of Urban Development Zones, which will empower local authorities to strategically advance development projects. Building Information Modelling (BIM) has the potential to transform the design and management of construction projects. BIM can speed up the construction process, reduce

waste, cut costs, and deliver projects to a higher quality. Acknowledging the transformative role it can play, in January 2024, I introduced BIM requirements into the Capital Works Management Framework (CWMF). This requirement now applies to public work projects with a capital value of over €100 million. Over the next four years, these requirements will be extended to cover all public works projects. As part of my reforms to the CWMF we are also adopting the International Cost Management Standard, which will bring benefits such as enabling consistent reporting of costs across the NDP.

MMC

targets delivery of 1,500 social homes, leveraging MMC approaches by the end of 2024. In addition, the MMC Demonstration Park in Mount Lucas, County Offaly will be a crucial resource for developers and construction professionals facilitating the delivery of high-quality, affordable homes. A planning application has been submitted and phase one of the project is on target for completion by Q3 2024. Ernst and Young (EY) has been commissioned to assess the MMC skills need in the years ahead. An action plan for MMC skills will follow the publication of the EY report this year.

Further innovation

The Construction Sector Group (CSG), which is overseen by my department, ensures regular and open dialogue between government and industry. The CSG and its associated innovation and digital adoption sub-group are driving seven actions, which are making substantial progress.

Another innovation currently underway is the digitisation of the planning application process across our 31 local authorities. The Local Government Management Agency (LGMA), under the governance of the CSG Sub-Group has rolled out an e-planning system in twenty-four LAs. The rollout to the remaining LAs will occur by Q2 2024.

For example, ConstructInnovate (CI), which is the construction technology centre, is playing a pivotal role in meeting the infrastructure demands outlined in Project Ireland 2040. The research centre aims to make Ireland a global leader for sustainable construction and built environment technology.

Finally, we are aware of our emission reduction targets and with this in mind the CSG sub-group in conjunction with the RIAI and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications has developed Construction Sector Circular Economy Guidance. This report will be published in Q1 2024.

Furthermore, there has been significant progress embracing modern methods of construction (MMC) in the construction sector with the Roadmap for MMC Adoption in Public Housing being published in July 2023.

The introduction of BIM requirements to the CWMF in 2024 provides a clear line of sight to the construction industry and built environment in the transition to a more digital construction sector. This development will further increase productivity, support sustainability, and facilitate the delivery of the NDP.

A significant step in this roadmap is the roll out of the Accelerated Social Housing Delivery Programme, which

infrastructure and construction report

Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Paschal Donohoe TD

Enabling transitions – Emerging trends in infrastructure 2024

infrastructure and construction report

Emerging trends in infrastructure in 2024: Enabling transitions

Can we enable transitions in a meaningful way to deliver our key infrastructure needs? Paul O’Neill, Managing Director, Corporate Finance, KPMG, writes.

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When I wrote this article for last year’s publication, our key global themes centred round digital transformation, supply chain disruption and energy transition. All very much remain at the core of what we see looking ahead to 2024, but can it finally translate to accelerated project delivery?

Digital transformation – moving from talk to action Every year, it feels like we predict that the infrastructure sector will finally embrace digital, innovation, and technology. While there have certainly been some pockets of digital transformation seeping into the infrastructure sector, progress has been 70

comparatively slow versus other sectors. So, why do we think things will change this year? Some of our optimism is based on the technology landscape. The uptake of digital twins in asset management and design demonstrates that industry has the capacity and desire to transform. Modern construction methods should also increasingly become embedded in the sector, but there is some cause for scepticism that this trend will not materialise in the near term. At a recent client roundtable, a valid challenge posed was the ability of contractors to bring supply chains along with them given that margins remain tight, and businesses require a degree of certainty in relation to National

Development Plan (NDP) rollout if they are to adopt new technologies, approaches, and training programmes. Few would disagree that these new innovations are needed and will ultimately benefit projects, the economy and society in the long term. We need to start mandating these requirements in procurement processes but also be prepared to back it up and pay for them. Too often tender competitions are eventually decided on price. Competing solely on price does not necessarily indicate a focus on priorities beyond cost that will ultimately help move the industry forward. As a private sector client put it to me: “There is a major opportunity for the Government to play a role in mandating more sustainable and innovative approaches that would force the supply chain to evolve.”

Capacity and supply chain – accelerating delivery Ireland did exceptionally well in the 2000s in attracting overseas expertise and building up our onshore supply chain. We were lauded in so many other

Find out more www.kpmg.ie/infrastructure

To attract back market interest, it is important that we actively market at home and overseas the significant programme of infrastructure spend that is planned over the next 10 years. That would allow the supply chain to invest in developing capability and focus here. To do that we need clear certainty on the programme for delivery of the NDP that the market has confidence in. We also cannot lose sight of the skills deficits we have in many areas across the market. Competition from overseas is a factor here but so too are challenges around the capacity to invest by the public and private sector in building up the skills base.

Transitioning to nature based solutions At COP28, nearly 200 nations agreed to triple renewable energy capacity and double energy efficiency by 2030 in order to meet international net zero goals as outlined in the Paris Agreement. We all know that massive

“To attract back market interest, it is important that we actively market at home and overseas the significant programme of infrastructure spend that is planned over the next 10 years.” investment needs to be placed into scaling up renewables delivery, but what we are not very good at is describing the wider societal risks that we all face if we do not do a project. This has to change.

The 12th edition of KPMG’s Emerging Trends in Infrastructure is now live – the 2024 report explores 10 challenges and opportunities facing infrastructure leaders. Read in full at:

The widespread adoption of valuing nature-based assets and solutions would enable companies to better account for these assets on their balance sheets. It would also enable governments to make more informed decisions that balance infrastructure delivery with sustainable development, increasingly important in an Irish context with a growing, ageing population which has very different infrastructure needs to one which is seeing growth come at the younger end of the spectrum.

https://kpmg.com/ie/en/home/insights/20 24/01/emerging-trends-in-infrastructurecge-infra.html

Paul O’Neill Managing Director, Corporate Finance, KPMG Ireland E: paul.oneill@kpmg.ie W: www.kpmg.ie

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While there are welcome signs, with responsibility for NDP delivery now sitting with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the publication of the new infrastructure guidelines, it remains to be seen whether this will serve as the muchneeded enabler to accelerate project delivery. We also need to address the siloed thinking in approaches and methodologies across departments to provide for increased collaboration and learning opportunities. As one public sector client put it to me simply: “We do not talk to each other enough and we do not learn from each other enough. We need to create more opportunities to do that.”

infrastructure and construction report

jurisdictions for how well we developed our infrastructure and learned from others to develop best practice expertise and delivery. Our star has definitely waned in the interim. While it is often taken for granted in Ireland that market interest to tender for new projects is there, that is not necessarily the case. We have seen the depth of our own contracting market decrease post the recession and indeed seen many of our own parts of the supply chain choose to focus efforts on the overseas or private sector markets. We are competing, especially for the mega projects, against other overseas markets that are often much more attractive.

In conclusion, the platform exists to enable transitions in a meaningful way but the successful implementation of any development plan, including our own, hinges on fostering increased collaboration across government and the construction industry, coupled with a transformative shift in mindset toward sustainable infrastructure delivery and construction industry modernisation. 71

infrastructure and construction report

Enabling transitions – Emerging trends in infrastructure 2024

Capital expenditure in Budget 2024 Total capital expenditure in Budget 2024 amounts to €12.8 billion, a 7.6 per cent increase on Mid-Year Expenditure Report 2023 levels and a 3.2 per cent increase on Budget 2023 levels as Ireland continues infrastructure spending increases to deliver the National Development Plan. Ireland’s total capital expenditure of €12.8 billion in Budget 2024 is made up of €12.6 billion in gross voted core capital expenditure as is set out by the National Development Plan (NDP) and €250 million from windfall exchequer receipts “to be allocated to critical infrastructure projects that are at an advanced stage as well as to the existing Climate Action Fund”. A further €2 billion is being made available across 2025 and 2026 in this regard, significantly boosting effective delivery of capital projects in these areas and other government priorities. Including the €250 million in 2024, this raises the overall increase in capital investment in 2024 to just over 10 per cent above 2023 funding. With the ESRI predicting that Ireland’s level of inflation for 2023 will be recorded as 6.4 per cent, the level of core infrastructure expenditure provided 72

in Budget 2024 represents an increase of 7.4 per cent from Mid-Year Expenditure Report 2023 (MYER23) levels, but total capital expenditure represents a 3.2 per cent increase from Budget 2023 total capital expenditure levels, when €12.4 billion was made available for infrastructure spending. In its expenditure report for Budget 2024, the Government states that the increase of “approximately 8 per cent” from MYER23 levels and the subsequent core total of €12.6 billion as being “in line with the NDP” and providing funding for “key investment across sectors including health, housing, education, and transport while also investing in our climate goals”.

Expenditure by department Of the current 18 government departments, 17 receive capital

funding, with only the Department of the Taoiseach receiving none. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage retains its status as the most highly-funded department in terms of capital funding, amid high projections of construction needed to answer the housing crisis that has raged in Ireland for a decade. The €3.884 billion allocated to the Department is a 10 per cent increase on MYER23 levels and a 10.5 per cent increase on Budget 2023 levels. The capital funding given to the Department accounts for 30.9 per cent of all voted capital funding, an increase on its proportion of 26.7 per cent in Budget 2023. The departments of transport and health are the second- and third-best funded departments in terms of capital expenditure respectively, with the two and the Department of Housing, Local

Find out more www.kpmg.ie/infrastructure MYER 2023 core

Budget 2024 core

Change to core

Non-core

Total

€million

€

295

287

-2.7%

315

Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth

20.9%

135

Defence

176

0.0%

176

Education

860

940

9.3%

940

Enterprise, Trade and Employment

540

534

-1.2%

584

Environment, Climate and Communications

848

926

9.2%

950

Finance

-10.0%

Foreign Affairs

0.0%

Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation

575

601

4.5%

620

Health

1,075

1,218

13.3%

1,231

Housing, Local Government and Heritage

3,522

3,875

10.0%

3,884

Justice

272

274

0.7%

274

Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform

260

300

15.3%

308

Rural and Community Development

201

0.0%

210

Social Protection

0.0%

Taoiseach

215

221

-2.7%

221

Transport

2,595

2,592

-0.1%

2,664

Gross voted capital expenditure

11,566

12,286

Tourism, Culutre, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media

Government and Heritage being the only three departments to receive over €1 billion in capital funding. Despite this, the Department of Transport’s €2.664 billion in capital funding is a 0.1 per cent decrease on MYER23 levels, but a 1.6 per cent increase from Budget 2023. The Department of Transport’s capital expenditure budget accounts for 21.2 per cent of all capital expenditure, the same proportion it accounted for in Budget 2023. The Department of Health received an increase of 13.3 per cent compared to MYER23 and a 4.6 per cent increase from Budget 2023, with its total of €1.231 billion accounting for 9.8 per cent of total capital expenditure, a slight increase from the 9.5 per cent it accounted for in Budget 2023. Of the 17 government departments which receive capital expenditure funding, four received funding cuts compared to MYER23 levels; in comparison, no departments received a cut in funding in Budget 2023. The biggest of these cuts by proportion is the 10 per cent cut to the Department of Finance’s capital expenditure

funding, falling from €30 million to €27 million, and the biggest in overall cash terms is the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, whose allocation of €287 million represents an €8 million decrease. In terms of increases, the largest by proportion was the 20.9 per cent increase allocated to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. The increase of over €300 million allocated to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is the largest increase in cash terms. With the ESRI predicting Ireland’s inflation for 2023 to average 6.4 per cent and the IMF predicting 5.3 per cent, eight ministerial vote groups received increases in their funding compared to MYER23 levels, with two departments (Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media) receiving increases that fall under both predicted rates of inflation, equating to real terms cuts.

infrastructure and construction report

Agriculture, Food and the Marine

293 12,581

GNI* The Government has previously pledged to ensure that voted capital expenditure will be at 5 per cent of GNI* by 2025. The GNI* figures of the Central Statistics Office are typically one year behind, meaning that we can compare 2022’s GNI* to Budget 2024, published in 2023, but cannot be certain of how the budget totals compare with current GNI*. Voted capital expenditure in Budget 2023 stood at 5.3 per cent of 2021’s GNI*. Budget 2024’s voted capital expenditure stands at 4.7 per cent of 2022's GNI* (€273 billion). There is a danger of the 2025 target being missed due to pronounced increases in GNI*, with it having increased by 17.1 per cent from 2021 to 2022, or just under €40 billion, having previously had a yearly average increase of €7.3 billion from 2017 to 2021. From Budget 2023 to Budget 2024, capital expenditure will increase by 3.2 per cent in comparison; significant increases to capital expenditure will be needed if the pace of GNI* increases are to be matched. 73

infrastructure and construction report

National road safety: A Safe Systems approach

Ireland has seen a year-on-year increase in road fatalities over the last number of years, which has become a hot topic. The recent hike in numbers is not limited to Ireland, many other European countries have witnessed the same regression following Covid-19, writes Suzanne Meade, Senior Engineer, TII Road Safety.

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It is beneficial to briefly benchmark our road safety performance against the rest of Europe. The European average, in 2021, was 44 collisions per million population; Ireland has a lower rate of 27 collisions per million population, placing it in the top five best performing countries in Europe. A recent European evaluation of the trans-European road network (our motorways) is also encouraging because the average fatal collision rate was 2.1 per billion vehicle kilometres travelled on these roads, which is almost two times higher than the rates on Irish motorways. Taking a closer look at what is happening in Ireland, comparing national roads alongside the safety performance of regional and local roads, between 2016 and 2023 a diverging pattern emerged. During Covid-19, performance was mixed and it was difficult to draw any conclusions but what is clear is that national roads appear to be experiencing a more favourable return to full operation than regional and local roads. While 2023 collision numbers on national roads are 74

not as low as previous years, notably 2017 to 2019, collisions did not increase to the same extent as regional and local roads when traffic levels returned to pre-Covid-19 levels.

Interestingly, fatalities did not fall during Covid-19 travel restrictions despite significantly reduced traffic on national roads. What we do know about the impact of Covid-19, in terms of road safety driver behaviours, is informed by Road Safety Authority research. After 2019, a sudden deterioration in driver behaviour (speeding, mobile phone use, impaired driving, and seat belt wearing) materialised that has not reverted to pre-Covid levels. This is significant because driver behaviour is known to be a contributory factor in over 80 per cent of fatal collisions. Notably, despite this, national road fatal collisions fell in 2023 compared to 2022 and the long-term rate of collisions continues to decrease. This is also illustrated by the fact that national roads account for only 37 per cent of all fatal collisions and 21 per cent of all serious injury collisions that occur in Ireland. The slope of the trend is not as rapid as we would like, but it is still moving towards Vision Zero. This benefits half (48 per cent) of all traffic in the country and 90 per cent of freight traffic that national roads carry. That is a staggering 22.8 billion vehicle kilometres (over 62 million a day) travelling on just 5,300 kilometres of roads. The safety of

Fatal injuries by broad collision type Injuries reported along the motorway and primary and secondary network

Head-on NMU Other PCT SVC Veh to Veh

Veh to Veh fatal injuries

Single vehicle fatal injuries

NMUs fatal injuries

Other PCT fatal

183

105

infrastructure and construction report

Head-on fatal injuries

Serious injuries by broad collision type Injuries reported along the motorway and primary and secondary network

Head-on NMU Other PCT SVC Veh to Veh

Head-on serious injuries

Veh to Veh serious injuries

Serious vehicle serious injuries

NMUs serious injuries

Other PCT serious injuries

554

744

485

371

123

“Our analysis helps us to understand which part of the network carries the biggest risk. For example, we know that 92 per cent of fatalities on national roads occur on highspeed single carriageway roads. This is significant because they are not the busiest parts of the network in terms of traffic; carrying only 38 per cent of all veh.km travelled.”

There is also a statutory road safety remit for national roads under government legislation, namely the EU Directive on Road Infrastructure Safety Management (EU RISM), that was transposed by S.I No. 612 of 2021. Under this legislation, TII has responsibility for carrying out certain functions and programmes to implement the Directive. Management of the Directive remit is implemented through the TII Road Safety Programme, which is run by the TII Road Safety section within TII. Safety is a cornerstone of the TII Statement of Strategy. It does this in several ways: through the allocation of funding to local authorities for road safety improvement measures; by providing data analytics to local authorities and 4

Alastair de Beer, Head of Road Safety at TII.

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this network is critical because it facilitates mobility and accessibility to education, employment, retail, recreation and tourism and key services such as health.

TII road safety roles The main Irish strategy setting out what we need to do to prevent collisions is Ireland’s Government Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030. Ireland’s Vision Zero targets aim to halve the number of serious injury collisions by 2030, in sixyears’ time, and eliminate fatalities by 2050. Both the Climate Action Plan 2023 and the National Sustainable Mobility policy contain safety actions because road safety impacts the shift to active travel.

Sign on post 1:9 Timber fence 1:3

Tree 1:1

infrastructure and construction report

Stone Wall 1:1

Wall – Pillar 1:2 Road edge – ditch 1:3

Debris / Boulder 1:13

other stakeholders; by developing and funding third-level training in collaboration with the Atlantic Technological University; by providing regular professional education in road safety; by targeted national road safety intervention; by developing new road

safety tools and standards; by facilitating capacity building; overseeing the management of the national Road Safety Audit portal; by informing policy development with the Department of Transport; and through innovation and research with various partners and

N76 Grangemockler Village County Tipperary

stakeholders in Ireland and across Europe. To help unpick data and trends a variety of techniques have been developed to understand prevalent safety issues, see below example illustrating collision type and changes over time. The most common type of fatal collision, 40 per cent, is a vehicle to vehicle (head-on) collision. This type of collision is particularly prevalent on high-speed single carriageway sections, with high proportions of heavy good vehicles, has a straight alignment and is located close to or in the vicinity of a change of road type, i.e. motorway or dual carriageway. In terms of serious collisions, single carriageway sections of the national road network account for most serious injury collisions (86 per cent).

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This type of high-level analysis of collision data allows TII to target safety improvement funding at particular collision types and to identify where they are likely to happen most.

Data analytics

N53 Park & Share Facility off M1 County Louth

Another approach that TII uses is safe systems and it is integral to the Government of Ireland’s Road Safety Strategy. The approach is underpinned by three principles: the human body has limited ability to withstand force; humans will always make mistakes; and finally recognising that road safety is a shared responsibility. Simply counting collisions is not enough. At the local level, data is required to understand

“The introduction of TII’s proactive

To do this, TII Safety section provides data analysis and collision analysis at the local and site level to help inform local authorities about what sections or elements of the road carry most risk for users. TII produces two main forms of road safety analysis: the first is called network safety analysis and the second is called road safety inspections.

collected specifically for the purpose of

“Our analysis helps us to understand which part of the network carries the biggest risk,” says Alastair de Beer, Head of Road Safety at TII. “For example, we know that 92 per cent of fatalities on national roads occur on high-speed single carriageway roads. This is significant because they are not the busiest parts of the network in terms of traffic; carrying only 38 per cent of all veh.km travelled.” Network safety analysis is calculated over a three-year rolling period. The network is divided into one-kilometre segments and the collision data, road attributes and traffic data are analysed to identify higher than expected collision frequencies. Sections with a collision rate twice above the average for their reference population, i.e. motorways, dual carriageways etc., and have three or more collisions are classified as a high collision location. TII investigates these further using collision investigation techniques before issuing the sites to local authorities. Typically, TII Safety produces this data every 18 to 24 months. Local authorities use this information to seek grant funding for safety improvement schemes and to inform the selection of minor schemes. Since this process began, over 10 years ago, the number of high collision locations has dropped by half due to local authorities implementing targeted safety measures.

significant shift, with primary data targeting safety interventions that aim to prevent fatal and serious injury across all road users,” says Desmond O’Conor, Chief Road Safety Data Analyst at TII. To gather data about the elements of the road that could increase the risk of a serious or fatal collision the entire national road network is driven and inspected by teams of experienced road safety auditors appointed by TII. This visual inspection takes place over a four-year cycle. Each route is driven in both directions, in daylight and in darkness. The teams tag roadside hazards using a GPS enabled camera. During post inspection processing the hazards that were tagged during the visual inspection are ranked and prioritised based on the severity of the hazard and the likelihood of leaving the road. This process results in tens of thousands of tags each with individual severity and risk likelihoods that are provided to local authorities. The road safety inspections programme has provided a means to improve roadsides by understanding in a

What next Transport is a constantly changing system and road safety systems will always need to be data driven and agile to respond to new or emerging trends. While it is not possible to fully comprehend the impacts future changes may bring the adoption of a data-led approach allows TII Road Safety to understand what needs to change to mitigate serious injuries and fatalities. “It is becoming more challenging to identify areas where engineering countermeasures can reduce future collisions, the future looks promising with the increasing prevalence and accessibility of new tools, such as machine learning (ML) and new data sources,” O’Connor says. The fact that the rate of collisions is falling on national road, despite a background deterioration in driver behaviour, illustrates that the use of network safety analysis and road safety inspections and investing in engineering improvements has facilitated a treat to target framework within which serious and fatal collisions have been prevented. For example, one of the next priorities for TII Road Safety will be treating high-speed single carriageway, by dividing the carriageway, to target 40 per cent of fatal collisions that are headon.

scientific way what improvements will result in a more “forgiving” road and by identifying in detail which elements are likely to cause injury if struck. Some examples of road safety improvement schemes that originated from TII safety analysis and successfully delivered by local authorities are illustrated on the previous page and represent a small fraction of the sixty plus improvements delivered each year.

“The introduction of TII’s proactive programme has brought about a significant shift, with primary data collected specifically for the purpose of targeting safety interventions that aim to prevent fatal and serious injury across all road users.”

“By using a data driven approach to investment the number of high collision locations on national roads has halved in less than a decade,” says de Beer. “The focus for investment over the next decade will be informed by our proactive road safety inspections.” Network Safety Analysis and road safety inspections informs decisions and provides TII with a robust system that given time, resources, co-operation with stakeholders and continued funding will work towards achieving Vision Zero.

E: infosafety@tii.ie W: www.tii.ie

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The second type of road safety analysis is called Road Safety Inspection and is a pro-active way to identify collision risks before they appear in collision statistics. This analysis differs from network safety analysis because it evaluates collision risk rather than collision frequency. This analysis uses historic collision data to evaluate the safety risk or severity of a future collision for various elements on the network to provide data about risk to road users. For example, a collision with the pillar or pier of a wall on a highspeed road has a 50 per cent chance of an injury collision.

programme has brought about a

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how infrastructure or discrete parts of a network contribute to serious injury and fatalities.

Desmond O’Conor, Chief Road Safety Data Analyst at TII. 77

infrastructure and construction report

Enabling transitions – Emerging trends in infrastructure 2024

The impact of planning and regulatory delays Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) Senior Research Officer Muireann Lynch discusses the cost of planning and regulatory delays for the energy system. Contextualising her research, Lynch explains that the idea for the ESRI’s paper investigating the cost of planning and regulatory delays for the energy system was stakeholders querying losses incurred in the time it takes to get energy projects connected to the grid and generating power. Lynch and her colleagues analysed electric renewable energy (RES-E) projects due to such projects being a “major pillar of energy policy, both in terms of decarbonisation and of increasing security and affordability”.

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infrastructure and construction report

“These delays are not costless, they are having power system impacts. Increasing the number of opportunities and reducing An Bord Pleanála’s timelines would both be helpful.” Muireann Lynch, Senior Research Officer, Economic and Social Research Institute

“RES-E projects face various planning and regulatory hurdles; you have to get over various jumps before you finally get your project onstream,” Lynch says. “Once you have got your planning permission, you are looking for grid connection, once you have that, you are often looking for subsidy support. The literature would suggest that delays impact on delivery and these issues are not unique to Ireland. Furthermore, there is anecdotal evidence of delays in the Irish system in terms of getting projects delivered. “On that basis, we had a couple of research questions: what impact do the delays and regulatory setup have on delivery timelines? What are the knock-on impacts on the power system?” The roles of various organisations had to be factored into this research, as Lynch explains. Firstly, planning permission must be obtained through the relevant local authority and/or An Bord Pleanála. The planning authorisation cycle is continuous, with a targeted decision time frame of 18 weeks, although the average time frame is 37 weeks. Grid connection is governed by EirGrid and ESB Networks, with a yearly authorisation cycle requiring applicants to enter in September of every year and a decision time frame of 12 to 15 months. Generation licenses and authorisations to construct are granted in a continuous cycle by CRU. The RESS scheme operated by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications makes yearly awards with a decision time frame of three months, and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage’s authorisation cycle for foreshore licensing and leasing is continuous, with a decision time frame of 18 weeks. “We want to consider the impact of these decisions being made faster if the time to get planning permission was reduced and also if there were an increased number of opportunities to apply for grid connection and RESS,” Lynch says, explaining the terms of the research. “We are going to track 2,000MW of approved capacity that will eventually overcome these hurdles and get built. The only question here is when this capacity will get on the grid, not if it will.” Accordingly, the ESRI constructed a number of scenarios (as seen in Figure 1), where various possibilities were considered, such as the reduction of planning decision time to 25 weeks and the targeted 18 weeks, and increases in both RESS and grid offer opportunities per year from one to two. “This is a linear least cost optimisation model which determines the socially optimal generation and transmission expansion assuming a benevolent social planner with

Enabling transitions – Emerging trends in infrastructure 2024

Figure 1: Scenarios Status quo

ABP#1

ABP#2

Grid offer

Weeks to ABP decision

Grid offers per year

RESS offers per year

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Hybrid

RESS

Combined

n/a

Yes

RESS

Combined

Figure 2: Percentage of 2,000MW installed per scenario Status quo

ABP#1

ABP#2

Grid offer

Hybrid

Year four

<1%

Year five

<1%

17%

<1%

75%

<1%

58%

Year six

50%

56%

75%

59%

100%

75%

100%

Year seven

92%

95%

100%

Year eight

100%

Figure 3: Results per year of installation of 2,000MW Y4

System cost

0.0%

0.3%

-3.2%

-3.3%

-0.6%

CO2 emissions

0.0%

-4.2%

-3.4%

-1.0%

0.0%

Marginal price

0.0%

-9.9%

-7.3%

-0.6%

0.0%

perfect foresight,” Lynch says, surveying the results of the scenarios examined (see Figure 2 and Figure 3). “Years one, two, and three see nothing built in any model, and in year four there was no difference between them. From years five, six, seven, and eight, we were seeing up to a 3.3 per cent decrease in system costs just from those 2,000MW getting on those few years earlier. The research shows a possible reduction of up to 4.2 per cent in CO2 emissions with the capacity being installed in year five, a possibility made all the more important, Lynch says, “now that we are in the era of carbon budgets” due to the fact that “if you get that the 2,000MW on by year eight, you still have the extra cumulative emissions from the power system in the meantime”. It is on price where the biggest impacts of these imagined reforms would be felt, with a decrease in marginal price of 9.9 per cent with the capacity delivered in year five and 7.3 per cent if it were to be delivered in year six. “There is a big impact on the difference in price getting those megawatts on those few years earlier. That can make an impact on marginal prices,” Lynch says, before offering another key footnote: “All of this was run pre-the Ukraine crisis, so if we were to re-run this under the higher fuel prices we see now, we would expect the price decreases to be bigger again.” Planning delays undoubtedly have an impact on RES-E rollout, Lynch says, and by providing further resourcing for An Bord Pleanála and/or allowing more opportunities per year to apply for grid connections and RESS, the process can be sped up “considerably”. Concluding, Lynch states that taking on either approach would tackle the costs and increased emissions incurred by such delays: “What I was surprised at was the impact of those delays on the costs, emissions, and particularly prices. These delays are not costless, they are having power system impacts. Increasing the number of opportunities and reducing An Bord Pleanála’s timelines would both be helpful.”

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Modern methods of construction: Defining an effective Irish operating model

The construction industry in Ireland has two challenges right now; increasing productivity and building sustainable infrastructure. Quicker adoption of MMC in Ireland can produce three clear outputs to address these challenges:

material use and reduce waste generation by at least 50 per cent.

•

speed up construction time and volume;

•

reduce the environmental impact with sustainable construction practices; and

•

a mitigation against inflationary pressures to improve margins.

MMC use in the Irish construction industry is currently fragmented. For greater standardisation and repeatability, the manufacturing processes and procedures need to be considered in respect to skills and capacity. As an island nation we rely on importing most construction materials. A centralised policy on building materials and components for common infrastructure such as housing would help incentivise the private sector to invest in MMC

Studies that compared modular and traditional construction methods showed that MMC could, with a clear strategy, enable a 35 per cent reduction in

Barriers to adoption: finding a way forward

Safety Safer working environment Offsite activities

methods. The most obvious barrier is the upfront, capital cost. The other key barrier is approaching MMC in housing as different to MMC in schools or energy infrastructure. Cross sector harmonisation of the collective pipeline will alleviate this. Larger state-funded capital programmes such as the new maternity hospital or MetroLink are great opportunities to develop an Irish MMC operating model. These programmes could look to collaboratively centralise the production and logistical processes with an Amazon delivery centre style approach to managing materials, off-site assembly, and delivery to site. This approach would allow housing developers to de-risk their investment in MMC practices and avail of the centralised facility and processes. The industry has already invested in digital workflows, BIM models, and information management and are ready to contribute to an MMC operating model for Ireland particularly in the design phases.

How to make MMC a viable option Three aspects will drive the adoption of MMC in Ireland; •

a national MMC strategy as an output of the governments MMC roadmap;

•

better formed public/private collaborations to identify capacity and capabilities; and

•

incentives to offset the capex burden.

Controlled environment

Delivery Off-Site Environment & Social Employ local, lower-skilled labour Reduced CO2

Strategy

35% Material reductions

infrastructure and construction report

Ireland has the necessary tools to take full advantage of the benefits of modern methods of construction (MMC). Jenna Davis, Associate Director with KPMG’s infrastructure team, discusses the barriers and opportunities of MMC.

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MMC in Ireland can offer transformative gains in productivity terms, safety, and environmental impact.

MMC

Programme Quality

20%-60% Quicker

Improve staff wellbeing Reduce number of defects Reduce revisits

On-site labour reduced by up to 70% Improved asset hand-over time

W: www.kpmg.ie

15%-40% Reduction

Opex

Capex

Reduced reactive maintenance

Cost certainty

Reduced energy consumption

Programmatic scale

Reduced cost with future layout changes

Standardisation and compounded benefits

infrastructure and construction report

Recovering the cost of latent defects – contractual claims vs latent defects insurance Contractual claims and collateral warranties: How do they provide protection in the event of latent defects arising?

Maitiú Ó Dónaill, Partner, Commercial Real Estate, Beauchamps

Richard Stowe, Partner, Construction, Beauchamps.

How best to protect against latent defects in construction projects has long been a thorny problem.

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While developers may have direct contractual claims against contractors and design professionals and may extend those claims by collateral warranties to purchasers, funders, and tenants, as the market has become increasingly sophisticated a greater awareness exists as to the potential shortcomings in relying solely on contractual claims. This has resulted in increased market demand for additional protections against latent defects.

Contractual claims (under building contracts, design appointments, collateral warranties, and related agreements) are the obvious first avenue of recourse in the event of latent defects arising post completion of building work. These claims rely on the underlying contractual terms agreed with the relevant contractor or design team members concerned. Such claims will only be available to immediate counterparties to the contracts or their permitted assignees (and not to subsequent purchasers, funders, etc.). The ability to effectively impose liability and recover against responsible parties for latent defects will depend on: •

the availability of contractual rights against those parties;

•

the ability to prove a breach of the relevant contract (rights of recovery under a contract would usually be “fault based”);

•

the precise contractual terms of the relevant contract and any exclusions or limitations of liability under those contracts;

•

whether time to prosecute a claim is still running (under the Statute of Limitations, 1957 a cause of action for breach in this context would usually commence from the date of completion of the works for a builder or the date of issue of defective design by a designer and run for 6 years under an ordinary contract or 12 years for contracts under seal); and

•

the availability of funds to meet the claim (either from the responsible party’s balance sheet or via then current professional indemnity insurance cover).

arising due to a defect in the design, materials, workmanship, or supervision of contractors or site works which existed on completion of the works but were not apparent at that time. To fund rectification of such defects and consequent losses, recourse to parties responsible for them will often be sought through actions for breach of the contracts put in place for the design and construction of the property concerned. In addition to such claims, those with an

Latent defects: What are they?

interest in property can take out latent

The term “latent”, sometimes called “inherent” defects, refers to defects

types of developments despite the

defects insurance (LDI). LDI policies are becoming increasingly popular for all additional costs involved.

In relation to the latter point, the availability of professional indemnity insurance is often relevant in the context of latent defects. Such cover will not always be available at contractually required levels when prosecuting claims for latent defects which may come many years after works are completed. Professional indemnity insurance is written on a “claims-made” basis whereby cover extends only as far as the indemnity limit established under the policy at the time a claim is made (and not the cover in place when any relevant negligence or breach actually occurred). In Ireland, the market for such insurance has recently seen some turmoil with many insured parties not being able to secure cover renewals at traditionally sought levels.

•

LDI: How does it work? LDI is insurance cover against loss or damage arising due to identified categories of defects becoming apparent in the design, workmanship, or materials used in a construction project. Recovery is typically limited to damage to the structure or waterproofing membrane of the insured development which becomes apparent after the contractor’s defects liability period. Unlike contractual claims they are not “fault based” so it is not necessary to prove the cause of the defect or to pursue the contractor or design team to recover under the policy. Developers who require LDI cover must engage with LDI insurers at an early stage of development to allow the insurer and its nominated assessor to begin assessing the scheme and monitoring the construction works from an early stage ensuring increased oversight during the course of the works and clarity for the insurer regarding the underlying risk and ultimate premium. A delay in engaging with the insurer may lead to an increased or loaded premium or indeed, the insurer may be unwilling to provide the insurance at all if it is not involved at a sufficiently early stage.

•

Claims under LDI policies (at least the LDI policies commonly available in Ireland) do, however, have certain disadvantages when compared with contractual claims, including: •

•

An LDI policy has the following advantages over purely contractual claims: •

•

LDI policies are not “fault based” so a claimant is not required to prove a breach of contract or other legal duty prior to recovering under the policy; LDI policies are issued by a suitably rated insurer and, therefore, the financial strength of the contractor or design team is not relevant to a claimant;

LDI policies are a common feature in most other jurisdictions and will give comfort to foreign institutional purchasers, tenants and funders.

•

LDI policies are expensive and the cost/benefit analysis for a developer incurring those costs is not always immediately clear. As purchasers, funders and tenants are, however, increasingly more sophisticated and global, an LDI policy is often viewed as a “must have” rather than a “nice to have” when offering a development for sale/letting, particularly for mixed use or commercial developments;

•

LDI policies generally do not cover certain categories of loss such as loss of rent, loss of profit or other consequential loss or otherwise will have indemnity limits on such loss and other types of claim.

Conclusion Latent defects are an unfortunate reality in property development. The turbulence of the property market over the last two decades has shown how contractual claims against contractors and designers can be fraught with difficulties either due to insolvencies in the sector, complexity of claims or changes in the professional indemnity insurance market. LDI policies while adding to the cost of delivering a project can be important in terms of maximising the success of the scheme, whether in terms of delivering the best funding option or the most advantageous purchaser/tenant. When considering the appropriate form of insurance on any project specialist insurance advice should be taken and the detailed terms of any policy interrogated to ensure that

LDI policies cover latent defects that arise in the structure or waterproofing membrane only and not latent defects that arise in other parts of the development such as fit-outs, plant, machinery and equipment (although policy extensions can sometimes be purchased for an additional premium);

whatever route is taken delivers the best

LDI policies generally are written with extensive lists of indemnity exclusions which must be carefully considered; and

Richard Stowe

results in terms of value for money and

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•

LDI policies typically run with the development for the duration of the cover and are therefore, not limited to a certain number of permitted assignments; and

infrastructure and construction report

“Developers who require LDI cover must engage with LDI insurers at an early stage of development to allow the insurer and its nominated assessor to begin assessing the scheme and monitoring the construction works from an early stage ensuring increased oversight during the course of the works and clarity for the insurer regarding the underlying risk and ultimate premium.”

risk cover.

Maitiú Ó Dónaill Partner, Commercial Real Estate T: +353 (0)1 4180600 E: m.odonaill@beauchamps.ie

Partner, Construction T: +353 (0)1 4180600 E: r.stowe@beauchamps.ie 83

Enabling transitions – Emerging trends in infrastructure 2024

Project Ireland 2040: infrastructure and construction report

Inflation curbs 2022 construction efforts

The 2022 update on the implementation of the Project 2040 infrastructure programme paints a largely positive picture for the strategy’s progression, but with economic challenges having manifested in 2022, significant work remains to be done. The Project Ireland 2040 Annual Reports for 2022 outlines that the volume of output in building and construction in 2022 was 9.7 per cent lower that the production level found in 2019, pre-pandemic. In terms of construction (excluding civil engineering), the volume of output in 2022 was 9.9 per cent lower relative to 2019. With regards to the residential sector, the volume of residential output decreased by 27.5 per cent between 2019 and 2022. The report further outlines how this relative decrease in construction output was caused by the spike in inflation which took place after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. However, leading economists, including The New York Times’ European economic

correspondent Peter S Goodman, have argued that global rates of inflation are primarily down to supply chain challenges which took place during and in the immediate aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, with many global haulage firms having become defunct in that time and global logistics entities having become dominant in the sector, resulting in less reliable supply chains with less options for transport for importers for good across sectors. Inflation was then accelerated by the Russian offensive in Ukraine which resulted in disruption to fuel supplies, further increasing the cost of importing building materials. The report outlines the impact of these spikes in inflation, stating that, in the 12 months to December 2022, there was a 16.2 per cent

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increase in the wholesale price index (WPI) of building and construction materials.

infrastructure and construction report

“2022 saw significant increases in the cost of energy and electricity, with electricity and energy products as measured by the WPI increasing by 10.4 and 10.7 per cent respectively in the 12 months to December 2022,” the report explains.

Inflation and supply chains With inflation cited in the progress report as the top challenge to overcome if infrastructure projects are to be delivered as planned, the delivery of new procurement practices is said to be a top priority if supply chains are to be opened up. In January 2022, the Office of Government Procurement published amendments to the public works contracts to reflect inflation pressures that arose on construction materials throughout 2021. The report states: “These changes reduced the fixed price period in the contracts, introduced a provision to permit contractors recover material price inflation in excess of 15 per cent within the fixed price period and allowed for the tender price to be adjusted to reflect for an increase above the defined background inflation level in the Central Statistics Office ‘all materials’ category of the Wholesale Price Index between the tender submission date and the award of contract.” These amendments applied to those contracts whose tenders were received after 18 January 2022. In May 2022, the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform introduced the Inflation/Supply Chain Delay Cooperation Framework for parties engaged under a public works contract with the objective of safeguarding public projects that were already under construction and to mitigate the risks of significant losses being sustained by contractors. The report outlines that government departments have reported that in the majority of cases parties are engaging and that agreements have been entered into. In spite of the downtick in residential output observed in 2022, the report claims that this level of engagement has facilitated “the progression of works” and has “avoided substantial delays” to completion by bringing a “greater level of certainty to contractors as to the extent of their exposure to inflation in material and energy costs”.

Analysis Although the Project 2040 report for 2022 paints a pessimistic picture for the state of construction in Ireland, the Government will take solace in that figures released in January 2024 show that building commencement in 2023 rose to almost 33,000 homes. However, with the Parliamentary Budget Office having said that inflation is not likely to be back to government target levels until 2025, it is unclear whether there will be enough of a mitigating factor in the subsequent increase in construction which took place in 2023 to curb the continuing rising prices and resultant housing crisis which continues to blight Irish society.

infrastructure and construction report

Housing Agency Projects and Procurement: Providing more services than ever before engineers, quantity surveyors, and project managers who provide professional and technical support and advice. We have assisted in excess of 50 AHBs and 10 local authorities since Housing for All commenced. This was achieved through the team expanding by over 100 per cent in that timeframe. We continue to attract construction and design professionals for key roles. We work closely with other services within The Housing Agency and stakeholders including the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and many others involved in public procurement and housing delivery, aiming to ensure that the information and technical assistance we provide is up to date and beneficial.

Norman Jackson, Senior Procurement and Projects Advisor in The Housing Agency.

The Housing Agency procurement unit aims to provide technical and professional services and support to local authorities and approved housing bodies (AHBs) in the delivery of homes within sustainable communities, writes Advertorial

Norman Jackson, Senior Procurement and Projects Advisor in The Housing Agency. The procurement unit was enhanced and expanded in response to the Government’s Housing for All Action Plan as published in 2021. Having worked as Senior Procurement and Projects Advisor with responsibility for the unit since its formation, I have seen the significant impact the team has made through their extensive knowledge and expertise. The residential 86

construction sector is currently going through a transition period, with a greater emphasis on innovation and sustainability and it is therefore an exciting sector to be involved in. Outlined below is a cross-section of the breadth of the work undertaken by the team. Our team is made up of architects,

Our projects team has expertise, and experience in the planning, design, and construction of social and affordable housing. We can assist and support through all stages and sizes of housing projects, which is particularly important to smaller AHBs or those with specialist care requirements, and who may not have in-house technical expertise. We also provide sketch designs and feasibility studies for a wide range of projects. These include large inner-city urban developments, refurbishment, and conversion of existing buildings. The procurement services that our team offers covers the various requirements of the Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS) process. This includes budget estimates and cost plans, advice on procurement strategy, assisting with procurements and assessments to ensure processes comply with the Capital Works Management Framework (CWMF), compilation of contract documents and general procurement advice. We can also assist local authorities and AHBs in

the establishment of frameworks for contractors, consultants, or other technical services.

We have a particular interest in the Town Centre First initiative to support and enable local authorities and AHBs to bring life back into towns and villages across Ireland. Town Centre First is a government policy launched in 2022 and aims to give our towns the tools and resources they need to become more viable and attractive places in which to live, work, visit, and run a business. Our part in this is done through assessment and design to refurbish vacant buildings and redevelop derelict sites.

MMC is used to describe a range of offsite manufacturing and innovative onsite techniques that provide alternatives to traditional construction methods. The benefits to adopting MMC include safer and more efficient delivery of construction projects, high quality homes, increased sustainability, and affordability. We are working with the Department of Housing and the Housing Delivery Coordination Office in supporting local authorities across the country to deliver social and affordable

Completed development in Knocknaheany, Cork, as part of the City North West Regeneration in Cork City.

“We have a particular interest in the Town Centre First initiative to support and enable local authorities and AHBs to bring life back into towns and villages across Ireland.” housing by setting up frameworks for design and build contractors, which will allow innovation in house construction through MMC. We are also focused on developing our expertise in BIM, which is a process for creating and managing digital information on a construction project over its whole lifecycle. Using BIM will be compulsory for most construction projects across all state bodies by the end of 2028. The use of BIM on construction projects allows for better collaboration between design teams and contractors, resulting in improved accuracy, efficiency, reduced risk, and greater sustainability. Our aim is to position The Housing Agency as a leader in this area so we can assist AHBs and smaller local authorities in their implementation of the BIM mandate.

At The Housing Agency, our work affects communities across Ireland, and the team can see the work it carries out making a real and tangible impact. Projects such as building social and affordable housing, domestic violence refuges and homeless accommodation all play a role in the delivery of the Government’s Housing for All Action Plan. The housing sector is fast paced, but it needs to be, to keep up with how Ireland is changing. Our team strives to constantly be at the forefront of policy and innovation in the sector. I am optimistic that the delivery targets can be met by industry across many different delivery streams over the coming years.

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The Government’s Housing for All Action Plan calls for increased innovation in construction. The use of modern methods of construction (MMC) and building information modelling (BIM) has been adopted in the industry as the need for more efficient and sustainable development increases. These innovations will be critical in ensuring the delivery targets set out in Housing for All are met. The Housing Agency has been tasked with promoting and assisting in the delivery of social and affordable housing using MMC. To this end we have developed a guidance document for the use of the design and build public works contract for local authorities and AHBs, as it allows for more innovation and the use of MMC through a public procurement process.

infrastructure and construction report

Our projects section is mainly architectled, with support from other technical professionals. We primarily focus on the development of early-stage feasibility studies for projects, with a limited number being carried through to completion and handover. We have worked with many different specialist service providers including those providing accommodation for those experiencing homelessness and domestic violence, as well as homes for older people and those with additional needs.

E: info@housingagency.ie W: www.housingagency.ie 87

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Enabling transitions – Emerging trends in infrastructure 2024

Need for improved infrastructure review process

In its annual review for 2022, the Major Project Advisory Group (MPAG) states that one of the top challenges for the completion of major infrastructure projects is that of project appraisal. The report calls on the National Investment Office (NIO) to issue an interim advice note strengthening capital appraisal guidance advice on cost forecasting. In order to ensure maximum efficacy, the report claims that the emergence of

The Major Projects Advisory Group (MPAG) has made a suite of recommendations with the objective of improving the review process and maximising efficiency in the construction of major infrastructure projects. 88

best practice for forecasting and derisking large capital projects will inform the development of this advice note. Where possible, the report says that independent reviews of the projects’ base costs by two separate reviewers should take place, and where possible cost ranges should be included.

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Recommendations for improvement

This process includes reducing the volume of material submitted and reviewed to improve the process, including a traffic light system of red, amber, and green to determine whether questions from the group on areas of concern were satisfactorily addressed, or whether matters raised to the MPAG have not been satisfactorily addressed following submissions of responses. Another recommendation by the MPAG is for greater engagement and scrutiny of external assurance reviews. This includes adding a bilateral discussion between MPAG and external reviewers as an agenda item to the full review meetings for proposals and greater consideration of the external reviews submitted as part of the project proposal. The focus of MPAG, the report asserts, should remain on external assurance processes and engagement with relevant departments where challenges arise. The report also recommends adding external experts from an alternate panel on a rotating basis, which is states will allow the MPAG to “draw from their experience and knowledge for specific projects”. “When MPAG was established, a small panel of alternate members was formed who may be called upon from time to time to fill vacancies which may arise, or to augment the group in certain circumstance. It is proposed that one member of the alternate panel would be added to the group for each future review,” the report says.

Learnings from reviews The report states that project building and construction estimates in terms of costs, inflation, and risks, were often outdated by the time the project was

infrastructure and construction report

To improve the review process, the report calls for a streamlining of the response document which each department must complete in response to questions from the MPAG on components of their submissions.

submitted to the external assurance process (EAP) and MPAG process. Given the time lag between when a draft preliminary business case is prepared, and when it is submitted to the reviewer as part of the external assurance process (EAP), the report asserts that PBC estimates and forecasts can become grossly outdated in terms of the costs, inflation, and risks include, among other areas, delays to the process seeing increases in cost estimates. To alleviate this, the report recommends that a summary page outlining the updated cost forecasts should be attached to the PBC submitted to the EAP and the MPAG, as well as setting out details such as base cost, risk analysis, sensitivity, benefit to cost ratios, etc. The report further states that cost estimates do not always adequately account for risks to the scope and delivery programme and inflation. Early cost forecasts, especially at preliminary business case stage, are inherently challenging, due to the nature, scale, long delivery horizons, and complexity of major capital projects. The report recommends that sponsoring agencies and approving authorities ensure that investment costs brought to government are as accurate as possible and estimates should be, as far as possible, based on outturn costs of comparable projects.

Wider conclusions The report says that progress has been made via the introduction of a process which has been put in place to ensure this quick turnaround and this allows the Group time to adequately appraise the project proposals and carry out a comprehensive review. However, the MPAG also says that this process could be improved further by measures such as streamlining the response document which departments complete, having greater scrutiny of the external assurance review, and adding in alternate experts to the group on a rotating basis. 89

infrastructure and construction report

Building a more secure future in the face of climate change

construction to some 100 schemes. Work to protect 80 per cent of all at-risk properties nationally is completed or underway. To date, 55 schemes have been completed, which are providing protection to nearly 13,000 properties and an economic benefit to the State in damage and losses avoided estimated to be in the region of €1.9 billion – significantly higher than the €1.3 billion the overall plan is projected to cost.

The Athlone Flood Alleviation Scheme is nearly complete and will offer protection to over 500 properties in the Midlands town.

In its recently-published Climate Action Plan 2024, the Government outlined in stark terms the implications of the situation Ireland and the world finds itself in. Among the predicted impacts of climate change are a substantial increase in the frequency of extreme weather, including more intense storms and rainfall. “These more frequent heavy precipitation events will create greater likelihood of serious groundwater, river, and coastal flooding.”

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For the Office of Public Works, the words ‘preparation’ and ‘adaptation’ are key to its approach in meeting this generational challenge. In 2018, the OPW completed the Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management (CFRAM) Programme – Ireland’s largest and most comprehensive study of flood risk. CFRAM is recognised internationally as “an excellent example of flood mapping that can be used for emergency action plans”. That is the assessment of the US State Department which, when examining 90

standards used in flood mapping specifically related to developing emergency action plans, made contact with the OPW for advice on progressing its own mapping project. The CFRAM Programme included detailed assessments of flooding and impacts for potential future climate change scenarios, as well as under current conditions for 300 communities around the country that are home to approximately two-thirds of the population and 80 per cent of properties potentially at risk from rivers and seas. Flood Risk Management Plans (FRMPs), an output of the CFRAM Programme, provide the evidence for a proactive approach for designing and constructing flood relief schemes, delivery of which is supported by €1.3 billion through the National Development Plan to 2030. This investment has allowed the OPW to more than treble the number of flood relief schemes at design, planning, and

Behind the enormous figures are the people impacted by serious flooding events and whose lives are changed by the work being conducted by the OPW. Harry Waterson, a retired engineer living near the banks of the Shannon in the centre of Athlone, says: “The psychological impact of flooding is not really appreciated until you actually have to go through it yourself and see all your lifetime’s efforts literally floating out the front door.” Among the traumas suffered in 2009 and 2016 by Waterson and many of his fellow Athlone residents were the geysers of sewage, which under pressure from the volume of flood water, repeatedly blew manhole covers open and coated surrounding streets. As soon as the local authority cleaned it up, it would happen again. Incidents like that – the destruction of property, rowing a boat down the street to retrieve treasured possessions from your home, the need to man pumps on rota for 24 hours a day to fight back the flood waters – all have a corrosive effect on one’s peace of mind. Projects like the Athlone Flood Alleviation Scheme, which at the time of writing is 96 per cent complete, are restoring people’s faith that they can live in their homes and run their businesses without undue fear of being flooded out of them again. The Athlone scheme is one of five – along with Templemore, Springfield,

OP ori

A view of part of the flood defences in Fermoy. On top of the wall are receptacles for demountable barriers which are applied when a flood is anticipated. Water levels can exceed the height of the kiosk on the street.

OPW workers applying finishing touches to the flood defences in Athlone which complement the original 1840s limestone finish on the quays.

Demountable barriers were applied to the flood defence walls in Mallow on December 26 during Storm Gerrit, preventing serious inundation in the north Cork town.

Morell, and Glashaboy – on track for completion in the next three years, representing an investment of approximately €100 million.

planning application for a viable scheme must then be undertaken over an extended period. This largely unseen work can take many years to complete.

Plainly, much work remains to be done but delivery of this essential infrastructure is subject to numerous challenges, many of which are outside the control of the OPW.

Along with planning objections and judicial reviews, other factors like poor ground conditions on site and limited capacity in the engineering consultancy market can also cause delays to delivery of schemes.

While the OPW’s approach to scheme delivery is based on best practice, there is no one set of criteria or certainty around the issues that can arise on any scheme, meaning that the time taken to complete a project is associated with its scale and complexity.

CFRAM was a strategic study of viable options to address flood risk for a community. In that way, the CFRAM options are best described as outline concept designs. Arising from those outlines, further detailed assessment of the flood risk including hydrology and hydraulics, design options and statutory environmental assessments to support a

In the days after Christmas 2023, as Storm Gerrit swept across the country, the flood defences in Mallow and Fermoy were called into action and local councillor Pat Hayes of Mallow, told the local media: “Given the rain that fell on St Stephen’s Day prior to the investment [in flood defences], Mallow would have been completely flooded. Now residents and business owners can sleep at night in peace.” Similar remarks could be made about the recently completed schemes in Bandon and Clonakilty.

construction on the Morrison’s Island scheme will begin in 2024. Other major schemes like the Lower Lee, Bride River, and Midleton are at various phases of design, planning, and development. The OPW is working with Cork County Council to help identify feasible interim measures for Midleton – which suffered a serious flooding event in October – as work progresses to bring that town’s proposed scheme to planning. The challenges presented by climate change have been summed up in countless publications by now, but its consequences on the ground are already clear to see. For the Government and the OPW, preparation and adaptation remain the watch words as we face those challenges and build a more secure future for Ireland.

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External factors such as planning decisions and judicial reviews, while important for due process, can have a significant impact on the time taken to deliver schemes.

County Cork represents a good example both of the excellent results that have been achieved in building flood defences and the challenges that remain in completing the job.

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A view of part of the Clonakilty flood defences featuring the vertical stone finish typical of west Cork.

T: 046 942 6000 E: info@opw.ie W: www.gov.ie/opw www.floodinfo.ie www.waterlevels.ie

The €39 million Glashaboy Scheme is in the construction phase now and 91

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Build 2024: What to expect

Published in the summer of 2022, the Build 2022 report is said to have played a key role in informing the stakeholders which comprise the Construction Sector Group (CSG) on skills requirements for the sector. eolas Magazine looks ahead to Build 2024 and what to expect from the upcoming publication. Build 2024 is set to be published, according to the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, in Q3 2024. While it remains to be seen what the contents of Build 2024 will be, it is expected that the report will be shaped by the uptick in building commencements recorded in 2023, as well as challenges outlined by groups such as the ESRI (as acknowledged by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD) that the Government’s construction targets in Housing for All need to be significantly increased.

Employment and enterprise Enabling the transition of the workforce of the construction industry will be an important objective being sought by construction industry stakeholders. At the time of the publication of Build 2022, there were approximately 159,300 construction sector employees, representing 6 per cent of the State’s labour market. Of these workers, only 8 per cent were females. With the likely uptick to come from government for increased housebuilding, one can assert that

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there will be increased focus on increasing the number of construction workers in Ireland.

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The most recent figures on construction from the CSO show that, in Q3 2023, a 9.9 per cent decline was recorded in the volume of production, and that the volume of building and construction fell by 4.9 per cent on a quarterly basis.

Costs and inflation At the end of 2023, the Parliamentary Budget Office projected that inflation will not be in line with the Government’s targets until 2025 at the earliest. Other government reports have demonstrated the level of disruption that has been caused to the construction sector in Ireland, with inflation having been on the rise since the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, and then being accelerated following the disruption to fuel observed in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to the Central Statistics Office, inflation in the State decreased in 2023, from 8.5 per cent recorded in February 2023, to 3.9 per cent, recorded in November 2023. In the fuel sector specifically, there was a 7 per cent increase in demand for wind energy which has led to a decline in demand for gas. With inflation currently decreasing while construction costs continue to increase (see page 98), Build 2024 will, construction stakeholders hope, allow the industry to chart a pathway to bring down construction costs and enable the Government to deliver on its Housing for All objectives.

Skills and capacity Build 2024 is likely to continue the journey set out in its preceding publication to continue the expansion of apprenticeships to equip more workers with construction skills. The Government, citing a study from SOLAS, has asserted that there will be consistent increases in the number of workers utilising construction apprenticeships. With the framework to remain similar, it is likely that the focus will be on expanding the number of people with skills, with he sector facing a high level of demand for workers, again due to the likely increase in construction to be placed by government as Housing for All adapts to an Ireland with an increasing population while renters and house buyers do not yet have adequate access to affordable housing. In addition, modern methods of construction will likely have an enhanced focus. Modern methods of construction ensure that there is an enhanced level of knowledge among construction leaders about construction materials, scheduling, planning, sustainability, and BIM/data analysis. With the Government facing higher demands to meet its climate targets in the Climate Action Plan. The EPA has warned that Ireland is not on track to meet its climate targets, and the residential and manufacturing sectors account for close to 20 per cent of the State’s emissions.

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Making Ireland proud: Delivering the National Broadband Plan on budget and on schedule

eolas Magazine sits down with T.J Malone, CEO of NBI Deployment, responsible for building Ireland’s new national fibre network. Advertorial

In January 2020, National Broadband Ireland became the winning bidder to deliver the Irish Government’s National Broadband Plan. Widely recognised as one of the most ambitious and complex telecom infrastructure rollouts in the world, Ireland’s NBP is the biggest investment in rural Ireland since electrification. In this special infrastructure and construction report, eolas Magazine meets with T.J Malone, the head of NBI’s build company – NBI Deployment – to discuss the company’s progress on this vast megaproject. 94

Can you tell us a bit about your background that led you to NBI and what your current role heading up the build of the National Broadband Plan entails? For over 25 years now, I have been leading the design, procurement, and construction of some of the largest fibre network deployments in the world, which

has taken me to North America, the Caribbean, the UK, and of course large projects here at home in Ireland. Constructing any largescale infrastructure comes with a certain amount of pressure and in some cases, I have headed up workforces of up to 3,500 people. I guess you could say I cut my teeth working on numerous ambitious builds before joining the team here at National Broadband Ireland to take on what is arguably one of the most interesting and transformational network builds in the world right now. As CEO of NBI Deployment, I have built the team responsible for surveying, designing, and building the network for the National Broadband Plan, which will ultimately serve over 1.1 million people across every county in the country. It is a vast project, spanning over 96 per cent of the country’s land mass, using enough cable to circle the world four times over. As you can imagine, it is

also an extremely complex network build, working across all kinds of terrain in some of the most rural parts of the country – including many offshore islands.

We have really hit our stride with the pace and predictably of the rollout, which is testament to the dedicated work of everyone involved in the NBP. That is not just our team, but our partners, everyone in the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, local authorities, and the many associations that we work closely with to expedite our rollout. The size and scale of the NBP has never been seen in Ireland before, which has meant we have had to develop and mobilise a number of significant processes and ways of working, particularly with the support of the local authorities. After starting work with boots on the ground in January 2020, unsurprisingly the first couple of years were incredibly challenging because of disruptions caused by the pandemic, but we have worked very hard to get through the other side. Today, we have over 80 per cent of the rollout surveyed and passed through our detailed design process, which is vital work. We have around 70 per cent of the entire project completed with construction or currently under construction, which is the final stage. Most importantly, that means over 215,000 premises can place an order to avail of services on the new NBI network.

We hear from the Government that NBI is on budget and on schedule, is that right? That is right. In January, we completed our most recent contractual year and were pleased to report that the project is

Demand for the network is evident. We are seeing take-up rates above 50 per cent in areas where the network has been live for more than 18 months, which is significantly ahead of our original projections and all other international comparisons. This is testament to the Government’s leadership on the NBP and their policy to provide high speed broadband to 100 per cent of the population, no matter how rural or remote someone may live or work.

This is a project that will not just make people’s everyday lives easier, but it will enable a huge array of technological advances across education, healthcare, agriculture, and other key sectors. The National Broadband Plan will ultimately make Ireland the first country in Europe to provide high speed fibre broadband to 100 per cent of the country, and I believe we are creating the blueprint that other nations will want to follow.

Visit www.nbi.ie to find out more and register to receive updates on the rollout specific to your Eircode.

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Furthermore, we have completed the install of 955 broadband connection points (BCPs), which are public facilities where free high-speed internet is now available, and we have connected some 672 schools.

on budget and on schedule. As someone who lives in a rural community, I know full well that for those people who are still waiting, it cannot come quick enough, but that just shows how broadband has now become a vital utility that we all rely on. We are working tirelessly to get the job done as quickly as possible and no one will be left behind.

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You are now just over four years into the build, how are things going?

“Today, we have over 80 per cent of the rollout surveyed and passed through our detailed design process, which is vital work. We have around 70 per cent of the entire project completed with construction or currently under construction, which is the final stage.”

How do you view the importance of the NBP in relation to other major infrastructure projects? It is incredibly rewarding to know that we are responsible for reshaping Ireland’s infrastructure and empowering current and future generations with high-speed connectivity. It really is transformational for people’s lives. 95

Waterford Airport to be expanded

Credit: Tom Nolan

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Enabling transitions – Emerging trends in infrastructure 2024

The sight of Aer Arann ATR 72s landing from destinations in Britain and the European mainland was a frequent occurrence at Waterford Airport until 2012.

As the Irish aviation industry recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic, officials at Waterford Airport are optimistic of a return to commercial operations with work to extend its runway receiving a major funding boost. Waterford Airport, like most of Ireland’s regional airports, has struggled to recover since the onset of the 2008 recession and the subsequent collapse of the privately owned regional airline, Aer Arann. The airport has handled no commercial traffic since 2016, after Belgian airline VLM Airlines ended its operations. At its height in 2008, the airport handled 144,000 passengers, and offered services to Bordeaux, Faro, Málaga, and Amsterdam, as well as UK routes such as Birmingham, London Luton, and Manchester. The limitations with the runway length meant that these routes could only be operated through turboprop aircraft such as the De Havilland Canada Dash 8, the ATR42, and the ATR72. On 1 December 2023, Comer Group

International, following its owners’ purchase of the airport in 2022, announced that it would invest €12 million into the airport. This investment will cover almost half of the €25 million total cost. The runway is expected to be extended by 854 metres and widened by 15 metres. The upgraded runway would therefore measure 2,287 metres long and would be 45 metres wide. Planning permission for this project was granted by An Bord Pleanála on 4 February 2022, and was originally intended to be completed before the end of 2022. The goal of this project is to allow for jet aircraft such as the Boeing 737 and the Airbus A320 to land at the airport, which could open the possibility of Ryanair (which was founded in 1985 operating a single route between Waterford and London Gatwick using a single Embraer

110) and Aer Lingus being able to establish routes from the airport. Fine Gael Senator John Cummins, a former member of the board at Waterford Airport, welcomed the news of the investment, and said that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD “has been a vocal supporter of our goal to develop a runway in the southeast capable of servicing the main aircrafts of choice by most major airlines”. Cummins added: “I have always believed in the ability of Waterford Airport to offer the essential direct connectivity to the region that we require to grow our business and tourism offer. The runway expansion project ticks a huge number of boxes and would undoubtedly drive the propulsive growth envisaged for Waterford in the National Planning Framework.”

Enabling transitions – Emerging trends in infrastructure 2024

infrastructure and construction report

Hard and soft price increases driving construction cost uptick The average cost of delivering a three-bedroom semi-detached house in a multi-unit scheme ranges from €354,000 to €461,000 dependent upon location. The majority of this cost is made up of hard costs such as construction materials, which cumulatively increased by 0.3 per cent in 2023. Research collating the covering seven regions by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI), published in December 2023, found that the cost of delivering a three-bedroom semidetached house in a multi-unit scheme ranges from €354,000 in the northwest region (counties Mayo, Roscommon, and Leitrim) to €461,437 in the Greater Dublin Area (counties Dublin, Kildare, Meath, and Wicklow). This maximum price in the GDA represents a 24 per cent increase since 2020, when similar SCSI data found the average to bring such a house to market was €371,111, meaning that the average price to build a house in the cheapest region of the State in 2023 is now 95.4 per cent of the most expensive region’s average price in 2020. The findings mean that the minimum annual household salary required to purchase a new three-bed semidetached house in the GDA is €126,555 when government schemes such as Help to Buy and the First Home Scheme are excluded and the loan to income (LTI) ratio is 3.3. The corresponding figure for the northwest is €84,545, with other figures reaching as high as €114,545 in Galway and as low as €86,881 in the midlands region, 98

defined as counties Tipperary, Westmeath, and Offaly. The most recent of the Central Statistics Office’s (CSO) Survey on Income and Living Conditions, published in February 2023, found that the median nominal disposable income for households was €46,999 per annum. Hard costs – such as materials, housebuilding costs, and labour – comprise 53 per cent of overall delivery costs, with the remaining 47 per cent comprised of soft costs such as land prices, margin levies, financing costs, and VAT. Hard costs ranged from an average of over €198,000 per house in the northwest to over €227,000 in the GDA, a 15 per cent differential; soft costs ranged from €156,000 in the northwest to over €233,000 in the GDA. While hard costs outweigh the soft costs overall throughout the State, this balance is flipped in the GDA, where soft costs account for 51 per cent of costs and hard costs for the remaining 49 per cent. The significant increase in the average price of building a home in the GDA is attributed by the SCSI to increases in both hard and soft costs, which increased by an average of 27 per cent

(€49,000) and 21 per cent (€41,000) respectively. Land and acquisition costs are said to average at 13 per cent of overall delivery costs per unit across the State. Land and development costs average €78,962 per unit in the GDA and fall as low as €44,543 per unit in the northwest, with the proportion of the overall cost land and development costs account for 17 per cent in the GDA to 13 per cent in the northwest.

Material costs The SCSI states that increases in hard costs are driven by increases in energy, fuel, and building materials price inflation. The Banking and Payments Federation Ireland, in its Housing Market Monitor Q3 2023, states that Irish construction costs increased by almost 23 per cent from the end of 2019 to the third quarter of 2023, having increased by just 9 per cent between 2015 and 2019. The CSO’s wholesale price indices for building and construction materials reflects these findings, with materials key to the construction of new homes seeing significant increases during 2023. The December 2023 indices

Find out more www.kpmg.ie/infrastructure Cost of providing new private housing per unit on average by region, 2023 € 450,000 € 400,000 € 350,000 € 300,000 € 250,000 € 200,000

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€ 150,000 € 100,000 € 50,000 €0 Greater Dublin Area

Cork

Galway

Northeast

Northwest

Southeast

Materials

Siteworks

Professional

Development

Utility

Land

Finance

Margin

Mid lands

Source: SCSI

Construction materials index, 2023 (2015 = 100) 210 200 190 180 170 160 150 140 130 120 January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August September October November December

Stone, sand, and gravel

Cement

Ready mixed mortar and concrete

Concrete blocks and bricks

Other concrete products

Structural steel and reinforcing metal

Rough timber

Machined, treated engineered timber

Bituminous macadam, asphalt and bituminous emulsions

Electricial fittings

All other materials

All materials

show cement prices to have increased by 6.2 per cent on annual basis; stone, sand, and gravel prices to have increased by 8.4 per cent; ready mixed mortar and concrete prices to have increased by 7.1 per cent; concrete block and bricks prices to have increased by 6.5 per cent; and plaster prices to have increased by 7.3 per cent. When annual averages for 2022 and 2023 are compared, these price increases can appear starker again, with the annual average for plaster in 2023 showing an increase of 24.2 per cent from the 2022 average, cement showing a 16.8 per cent increase, and

structural steel fabricated metal showing a 24.8 per cent increase. Some relief will be found in the dropping of timber prices, both rough and machined, with rough timber prices falling by 6.3 per cent on an annual basis and machined timber prices falling by 18.1 per cent. Rough timber’s 2023 average price showed a 15.2 per cent decrease from its 2022 average price, while machined timber’s average price fell by 8 per cent in 2023. Decreases such as these and that of ‘other’ structural steel and reinforcing metal (down 23.4 per cent and 27.1 per cent on an annual basis respectively)

Source: Central Statistics Office

balance out the overall indices, meaning that all materials cumulatively saw their prices increase by just 0.3 per cent on an annual basis. In its capital goods price indices, the CSO records the building and construction price (i.e. materials and wages combined) as having increased by 2.7 per cent on an annual basis in December 2023. The average building and construction price in 2023 was 5.2 per cent higher than the 2022 average, making house prices unlikely to decrease in the short term while the cost of constructing them continues to increase. 99

infrastructure and construction report

The LDA: Supporting the creation of thriving communities

Shanganagh, Shankill, Dublin.

The Land Development Agency (LDA) is a commercial, State-sponsored body established in 2018, created to coordinate land within public control to provide

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affordable and social homes and build communities across the nation. The Agency’s purpose is to maximise the supply of affordable and social homes on public land in a financially sustainable manner, supporting the creation of thriving communities and delivering ongoing positive social impact.

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306 affordable cost-rental homes;

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91 homes that will be available for purchase under an affordable purchase scheme; and

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200 social homes.

Key projects in construction phase includes:

Delivery of the first homes in Phase one is on track for end of Q3 2024.

Shanganagh, Shankill, County Dublin Shanganagh was the first project to be backed by the LDA, which was established by the Government to unlock state land for new homes and improve the supply of new homes throughout Ireland. At Shanganagh the LDA will deliver 597 homes in partnership with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, the first partnership of its kind. The 597 new homes consist of: 100

St Kevins, Cork The LDA is repurposing this well-known Cork landmark into an attractive residential development with a mix of social, affordable, and private homes. With the support of Cork City Council, a Strategic Housing Development planning application was approved by An Bord Pleanála in 2021. The planning application documentation can be viewed here: http://stkevinsshd.com/

Planning was granted in November 2022 for the advanced infrastructure followed by full SHD permission in March 2023. The project aims to deliver 266 (46 houses and 220 apartments).

Devoy Barracks, Naas, County Kildare The Devoy Barracks located on John Devoy Road, to the southwest of Naas Town Centre, and immediately to the west of Kildare County Council’s headquarter offices and associated car parking area. A strategic housing development planning permission was approved in October 2022 for the development of the Devoy Barracks site is for the construction of 219 new affordable homes. Construction has begun on phase one of the development, which comprises of 42 new terraced houses and 56 new duplex units. Andrews Construction Ltd was the

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Cromcastle, Dublin 5.

successful tenderer and has been appointed by the LDA to deliver the first phase of this exciting new housing development.

Donore Project, Dublin 8 Constructed in the 1950s, St Teresa’s Gardens was one of the largest public housing complexes built by Dublin City Council (DCC). The LDA, in partnership with DCC, has brought forward development plans for the subject site which extends to circa 1.8 hectares and is located adjacent to the Coombe Hospital, Donore Avenue and is approximately 2km from Dublin city centre. An Bord Pleanála was granted permission in June 2023 for the development of 543 new homes, a crèche, commercial/retail space, community/cultural/arts space, and associated public open space. For more information, please see: https://donoreproject.ie/

Clongriffin, Dublin 13

The development will be one of the biggest single state housing projects in decades that will have a transformative impact on the area. As part of the delivery at Clongriffin on an overall basis, a key focus has been the identification of an element of the consented development that can be prioritised for early delivery for much-

Castlelands, Balbriggan, Dublin An Bord Pleanála granted planning permission to the (LDA) in early 2023 for the construction of a €290 million 817 unit residential scheme for Balbriggan in north Dublin. This strategic housing development site is located at Castlelands in the townlands of Hampton Demesne, Kilsough North and Balbriggan, County Dublin. The site is 25.33 hectares in size. The proposed development consists of 817 residential units, public open space and crèche facility.

Hacketstown, Skerries, County Dublin An Bord Pleanála granted planning permission to the (LDA) in early 2023 for the strategic housing development at this site located at Hacketstown in the townlands of Milverton, Townparks, and Hacketstown, Skerries, County Dublin. The subject lands are accessed via Golf Links Road to the south and Ballygossan Park phase one to the north. The site is bound by the Dublin– Belfast railway line to the west, the Golf Links Road to the east and south, and by individual houses to the east and south. The application site is 6.7 hectares. The development consists of a total of 345 residential units consisting of a mix of houses, duplex units, apartments and a crèche, ranging in height from two to four storeys. The development also includes surface and undercroft car

parking, provision of site services and infrastructure works including hard and soft landscaping, public open space, and internal link road. Delivery of the scheme will be phased with 176 units (including crèche) in phase one, and the remainder of the scheme in Phase 2. The LDA are now seeking to carry out a procurement competition for the design, construction and delivery of Phase 1 of the development, commencing post grant of planning and running through to delivery of the various tenures.

Cromcastle, Dublin 5 A project in partnership with Dublin City Council (DCC), The Cromcastle Project is a new scheme that will deliver 146 affordable and social homes to Dublin 5. The development will be delivered over three blocks. Blocks range in height from three to eight storeys, this includes community/cultural spaces. The development will also include public open and communal amenity spaces with new landscaping, ancillary car and cycle parking, and all necessary above and below ground infrastructure to facilitate the proposal with undercroft level to incorporate residents’ car parking.

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In late 2023 the LDA acquired a large site from NAMA next to Clongriffin Dart Station. This comprised the Project Capital North site and also the Barina Lands, and has the potential in the future to deliver about 2,300 homes.

needed affordable housing, while a strategic review of the overall landholding can be carried out.

The project followed the temporary Part VIII exemption process, which seeks to accelerate the delivery of public housing, and in partnership with DCC will commence construction by the end of 2024.

T: 01 9103400 E: info@lda.ie W: www.lda.ie

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Housing supply targets ‘understate need’

There is a high likelihood that the Government’s targets for housing supply “might understate need” given the stronger than expected increase in the population seen in the recent release of results from Census 2022, a report has found. Published in January 2024, The National Development Plan in 2023: priorities and capacity report by Alan Barrett and John Curtis of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) finds that, although there are capacity constraints which limit the output available in the housing sector, that increased housing output “should dampen the price of existing houses and rents”. The report adds: “Any increase in the costs of new building arising from increased investment could be offset by an easing in housing costs.” In addition to population increases, the report outlines that there are other

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challenges which contribute to the need for increased supply. These include the relative strength of the economy compared to those of Ireland’s EU neighbours, meaning that there is a higher demand placed on the homeowner market as more homeowners “seek to buy their own home, or upgrade into better quality housing”. In the report, however, it is unclear how many houses are required to be constructed per annum. The report was published with construction figures based on the Government’s commencement of new unit figures for 2022, which was 29,851. This figure has a broad consensus of being

insufficient despite exceeding Housing for All targets. However, the commencement figures for 2023, published in the aftermath of the ESRI’s report, show a commencement figure of 32,801. The ESRI informed the Government’s construction targets in Housing for All, and in a 2020 study called for an annual construction figure of between 30,000 and 35,000 homes per annum. The ESRI analyses that there are a number of factors which are likely to increase pressure on the housing markets, both in homeownership and in the private rented sector. On high levels of inflation and

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subsequent increases in interest rates by the European Central Bank (ECB), the ESRI states that the increase in inflation has prompted monetary authorities globally to tighten monetary policy by increasing select policy rates.

infrastructure and construction report

“Increasing interest rates has an almost immediate impact on housing demand via an affordability channel,” the report explains. A key policy target within Housing for All is construction of an average of 33,000 units per annum, reaching a maximum of 40,500 new units by 2030. However, the ESRI states: “It now appears likely with more up-to-date demographic data and given the increase in inward migration particularly associated with the war in the Ukraine, that this figure is too low and will likely be revised upwards.” Taoiseach Leo Varadkar expressed a belief that the upward revision of the targets “makes sense” in January 2023.

Other sectors With the ESRI study examining Ireland’s infrastructure more broadly, it too makes note of Ireland’s energy, transport, healthcare, and education sectors. On energy, citing targets in areas such as the Climate Action Plan, as well as the suite of energy policies currently in place, the ESRI states that there is a need for the State to transpose energy transition targets into levels of investment in terms of euros, but also in terms of labour inputs.

“Departments will be engaging with my officials in the coming months to ensure that capital projects have funding allocated up to 2026.” PENDR Minister Paschal Donohoe TD

“Combining likely labour needs for onshore wind, offshore wind, solar PV, conventional generation, and energy efficiency, it is estimated that the annual additional employment requirement would be approximately 24,000,” the report states. On the transport sector, the report, echoing a report by the OECD which found that Ireland’s transport system is “car dependent by design”, says that there is a need for “truly transformational policy with a focus on sustainable mobility at a system level”. “In that context, even if the 2:1 expenditure ratio favouring public transport over new roads is maintained, the roads element of expenditure should be based on design which includes active travel modes,” the report asserts. On health and education, the main challenge, according to the ESRI, is the higher-than-expected population growth which can put higher demand on resources in these sectors. “The pace of population ageing presents particular issues for healthcare, especially with regard to long-term care. So, while the basic policy framework is in place and identifies the needs for investment in acute, primary and community care, the required scale and geographic distribution of the investment is likely to be evolving,” the report analyses on healthcare challenges. On education, the report adds, in addition to population growth challenges, “many school principals rate school facilities poorly”. “Investment in digital infrastructure is also needed in education if stated policy ambitions are to be realised.” Responding to the report, Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, Paschal Donohoe TD was reluctant to commit to spending increases which would invariably be necessary if recommendations were to be implemented by the Government. He added: “Departments will be engaging with my officials in the coming months to ensure that capital projects have funding allocated up to 2026.”

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Respond: Delivering large scale, mixed-tenure developments in Ireland

Elanora Court, Long Mile Road Development.

In the face of Ireland’s housing crisis, Respond, a construction-led approved housing body (AHB) and service provider, is pioneering an innovative approach to housing development and placemaking in urban areas.

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Respond has approved plans to move forward with the construction of large-scale mixed-tenure developments across Dublin, including sites in Charlestown (590 homes), Tallaght (502 homes), Clonburris (318 homes), and Donaghmede (397 homes). The first 1,800 of a total 2,906 total homes will be built across these four sites. These projects will split approximately 50:50 between cost rental and social homes.

A new era in housing: large scale, mixed tenure developments The developments will be the first large-scale mixed-tenure schemes delivered by an AHB in 104

Ireland, with the first homes due to be completed by September 2024. With 1,508 homes already in construction, this will bring the number of homes Respond has in construction to 4,414, expanding the value of its construction programme over the next 12 months to €2 billion. Respond will leverage its large development and property team’s expertise to oversee and deliver these developments. In addition, the organisation is well placed to successfully deliver and manage these developments with over 40 years of housing management experience and a 92 per cent tenant satisfaction rate according to a Behaviour and Attitudes Survey undertaken in 2023.

Cost rental

The urban village placemaking approach: building communities By integrating social and cost rental homes, we aim to create diverse and inclusive communities. Respond offer both social and cost rental homes as ‘lifetime homes’ providing tenants a secure and affordable long-term tenancy. The cornerstone of Respond’s strategy is the urban village placemaking approach. This concept focuses on creating small, integrated neighbourhoods within larger urban areas, designed to be pedestrianfriendly and diverse. These urban villages combine housing, shops, workplaces, parks, and recreational facilities, fostering a vibrant street life and reducing the need for long commutes. Key characteristics of the approach include:

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Human scale: Designed to be walkable and human-scaled, meaning they are built to a size and scale that feels comfortable for people, rather than for cars or large-scale infrastructure. Mixed-use development: These areas typically combine housing, shops, workplaces, parks, and recreational facilities in close proximity. This mix encourages a vibrant street life and reduces the need for long commutes.

“Respond’s vision extends far beyond the realm of quality construction. Their housing model advocates for ‘lifetime homes’, ensuring secure, affordable long-term tenancy.” •

Community focus: Public spaces, like squares and parks, are central to the design, encouraging social interaction and community activities.

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Diverse and inclusive: A variety of housing types are included to accommodate a diverse population.

Lifetime homes: a commitment beyond quality construction Respond’s vision extends far beyond the realm of quality construction. Their housing model advocates for ‘lifetime homes’, ensuring secure, affordable long-term tenancy. This vision is reinforced by the presence of on-site staff, dedicated to providing high-level, professional services to tenants, and fostering community engagement and development. This will include: •

tenant involvement and support as needed;

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developing and improving public spaces;

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Tenants have recently moved into a new 153 home development at the new Respond development Elanora Court on Dublin’s Long Mile Road. Elanora Court brings affordable living to a new level, with bright, well-designed modern homes located close to many great amenities and easy links to public transport. The development was designed to offer spacious, modern living and built with comfort, safety, and wellbeing in mind. The development includes landscaped gardens, seating and play areas, Community Hub and a permanent on site Respond staff member. Respond will work with tenants to determine how to best use the shared community space and develop a programme of events based around the community that live there. As well as being superbly located, Elanora Court features homes built to a quality that is second to none. All of the homes have an impressive A BER rating, making them highly efficient and environmentally friendly.

helping people feel connected to their community; and

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Elanora Court

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Respond were among the first AHBs to deliver cost rental homes. The cost rental housing model is designed to provide secure, affordable housing for people, with rents set at a level that covers the cost of the construction, management, and maintenance of the new homes. Here rents are set at a minimum of 25 per cent below the market rents in the area where the homes are located offering a long-term secure and affordable home. The success of this tenure is crucial in responding to the needs of many households who do not qualify for social housing supports and find it hard to access affordable housing to rent or buy within the private sector. In November 2023, Respond received 575 applications for 13 new cost-rental homes in Swords in just three days, emphasising the high demand for such secure, affordable homes.

working with local businesses and community groups.

T: 01 808 7700 E: info@respond.ie W: www.respond.ie 105

Infrastructure Guidelines replace Public Spending Code Published in December 2023, the Government’s new Infrastructure Guidelines set out value for money guidelines for the evaluation of public investment projects, replacing the Public Spending Code and the interim changes introduced in March 2023. The Infrastructure Guidelines will act as the new centralised source of guidance from government for the completion of capital projects in Ireland, refreshing the requirements for such projects, reducing the number of approval stages, and streamlining the requirements for major projects, while “retaining the international best practice governance and oversight arrangements already in place”.

Key changes Key changes have been made in various areas of the process in order to streamline project applications, including the introduction of shorter form strategic assessment informing the development of the preliminary business case at approval gate one. Minimum thresholds for projects have also been increased: those needing a detailed project brief and procurement strategy (approval gate two) have been increased from €10 million to €20 million; and the threshold for Major Projects Advisory Group (MPAG)

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assessment has been increased from €100 million to €200 million. External assurance process and MPAG assessment for major projects will be focused on approval gate one, but the guidelines state that MPAG will be able to compel projects with which they are unsatisfied to revert for further pre-tendering scrutiny where warranted. The final business case (approval gate three) remains in place, stipulating that the case includes: •

final confirmation of the strategic relevance of the investment proposal and detailed specification of the objectives of the proposal;

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the detailed business case as set out in the planning and design phase and as confirmed by the tendering process;

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economic and financial appraisal using updated information from the tendering process as necessary;

Credit: William Murphy.

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Enabling transitions – Emerging trends in infrastructure 2024

Find out more www.kpmg.ie/infrastructure re-examination of affordability within existing resources and with particular reference to the mediumterm exchequer capital envelope for projects funded from voted expenditure;

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full risk assessment and consideration of remaining optimism bias;

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detailed delivery schedule;

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benefits realisation plan; and

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evaluation plan.

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•

Timeliness With long timelines and delays in decision-making a common complaint with regard to capital projects in Ireland, the Infrastructure Guidelines state that there is a “necessity to ensure that projects are delivered in a timely manner and that there are no unnecessary administrative delays hindering this”. Changes that have been made within the Infrastructure Guidelines in order to streamline the process include the approving authority performing consideration of the strategic assessment prior to further development of the business case and further clarity on the roles of the approving authority and the sponsoring agency, with the sponsoring agency given “primary responsibility for evaluating, planning, and managing public investment projects within the parameters” of the guidelines. Clarity has also been provided on requirements within the preliminary business case in an attempt to demystify the process and allow applicants to understand it before application, informing would-be applicants of the elements required within, which include: •

confirmation of the strategic relevance of the proposal and detailed specification of the proposal’s objective;

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description of the shortlist of options to deliver said objectives;

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demand analysis and description underlying assumptions;

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climate and environmental performance assessment;

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appraisal options, such as financial and economic appraisal and sensitivity analysis;

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affordability assessment within existing resources;

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risk assessment;

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proposed approaches to procurement, implementation, and operation;

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assessment of delivery risk;

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key performance indicators monitoring and assessment plan; and

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recommendation for the approving authority.

Changes in this regard are manifold, with further details on the procurement strategy now required, including considerations of supply chain capacity and appetite, risk management approach, and how value for money will be achieved. Climate and environmental performance assessments will be required to include greenhouse gas emissions projections and resilience forecasting for the project. An assessment of construction productivity requirements, particularly in relation to modularity will also be required. With objections a constant challenge with such large infrastructure projects, business cases are now required to include consideration of likely objection levels within the planning process.

Strategic assessment The Infrastructure Guidelines now stipulate that an applicant must carry out and submit a strategic assessment of their proposal to the approving authority before a preliminary business case for the project is developed. The strategic assessment will set out: investment rationale; objectives; strategic alignment with government policy; preliminary demand analysis; and the longlist of potential options. The introduction of the strategic assessment stage is similar to the strategic assessment report and Decision Gate 0, which had been introduced in the Public Spending Code but removed from the process by Circular 06/2023. The new strategic assessment stage is, however, designed to a lighter-touch process, with the approving authority and accounting officer given an earlier say in the preliminary business case development. Thus, while not constituting a full decision gate, this stage allows the approving authority to remain informed of a project’s progress at an earlier stage and request amendments, thereby avoiding situations where a sponsoring agency allows an unsatisfactory project to progress towards a decision gate.

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Construction outlook: Dissecting 2023 and expected trends in 2024

To best describe the current state of affairs of the Irish construction sector, the phrase “cautious optimism” comes to mind. Rhona Henry and Harry Healy of Matheson take a closer look at some key trends in construction throughout 2023 and what we can expect as we venture forth into 2024.

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We also take a helicopter view of the types of transactions encountered in 2023, and those we expect to see emerging in 2024.

Emerging sense of optimism For many in the construction industry, 2023 was a challenging, if not difficult, year. Cost and material inflation remained persistent challenges and Dublin office vacancy hit its highest point since 2013. Supplier stress and skilled labour shortages provided further headaches. However, as 2023 drew to a close, so too did the lingering sense of foreboding in the industry and a new sense of optimism has slowly and quietly emerged. CIF’s Outlook Survey for Q3 2023 saw over half of construction companies 108

surveyed feeling positive about the health of the sector heading into Q4 and only 11 per cent feeling pessimistic. Similarly, a BNP Paribas report shows that business sentiment is at a seven-month high. Employment in the sector grew in December 2023, further demonstrating confidence in the industry. Recent reports demonstrate legitimate reasons for this positivity. Euroconstruct have forecast that Irish Construction output will expand by 4.4 per cent in 2024 – the largest forecasted growth in Europe and the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland’s latest Housing Market Monitor estimates completion of 32,000 housing units in 2024, meaning the national target should be met, if not exceeded. Arguably the largest contributor to a lacklustre 2023

was inflation and interest rates. However, the trends are slowly but steadily moving in the right direction. The Central Bank’s latest bulletin forecasts a gradual decline in inflation. This can be felt in the industry. Construction material prices moderated towards the end of 2023. Further moderation in material prices is expected through 2024, allowing developers to progress plans with relative certainty around costs.

What we saw (2023)

Forecasted multi-building developments are also beginning to work their way out of the difficulties encountered with the planning system. We also noticed an uptick in the refinancing of assets at the tail-end of 2023 particularly in the context of assets not yet completed or where the related defects liability period was still running.

What we foresee (2024) With some improvement in availability of materials and more cost certainty, the 2023 growth in construction/development financing/refinancing is expected to continue in 2024. While this has been most noticeable, to date, in the residential and student-accommodation sphere, we have also seen steady work with respect to mixed-use space developments.

Alison Bearpark, Partner, Construction and Engineering, Matheson.

“Arguably the largest contributor to a lacklustre 2023 was inflation and interest rates. However, the trends are slowly but steadily moving in the right direction... Construction material prices moderated towards the end of 2023. Further moderation in material prices is expected through 2024.” lowest scoring buildings over time. Property owners and tenants may well find themselves in a position where their property must be renovated or redeveloped to avoid the threat of becoming a ‘stranded asset’.

Rhona Henry, Partner and Head of Construction and Engineering, Matheson T: 01 232 2110 E: rhona.henry@matheson.com

Keep calm and carry on strong

Alison Bearpark, Partner, Construction and Engineering, Matheson T: 01 232 2218 E: alison.bearpark@matheson.com

The future certainly looks brighter than it did during much of 2023. While inflation and supplier stress remain critical issues, we appear to be moving in the right direction. The forecasted growth in the industry is welcome. Nevertheless, challenges still lie ahead.

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Fit-out/refurbishment and alteration projects look likely to be another feature of the market in 2024. The new challenges that are anticipated to arise out of the long-awaited revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive will certainly be one of the drivers behind this growth. While not yet in force, this recast directive looks set to introduce more onerous regulatory efficiency standards for new and existing buildings in the EU and encourage member states to renovate their building stock. The main objective of the recast directive is to have all new buildings emission-free by 2030 and have the existing building stock transformed into zero-emission buildings by 2050. The latter of these objectives is set to be achieved by a gradual, bottom-up approach to improving the energy performance of existing buildings. This means the staged phasing out of the

Rhona Henry, Partner and Head of Construction and Engineering, Matheson.

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Despite many economic pressures being felt, 2023 nevertheless saw some noteworthy transactions take place. Multi-building and multi-use, campus style developments continued to progress. This progression was not restricted to residential but included commercial and retail spaces.

Harry Healy, Construction and Engineering, Matheson T: 01 232 2439 E: harry.healy@matheson.com W: www.matheson.com

Matheson’s Construction and Engineering team look forward to once again engaging with clients and stakeholders this year. Should you have any questions in relation to anything discussed, please do not hesitate to contact a member of our team. 109

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Enabling transitions – Emerging trends in infrastructure 2024

‘Challenging’ demand for construction workers The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has launched the Careers in Construction: Action Plan, aiming to ensure that the Government meets the estimated 23,000 annual demand for new construction workers. Published one year on from the Report on the Analysis of Skills for Residential Construction and Retrofitting 2023-2030, which claimed that the Government will need to ensure that there are at least 23,000 construction workers recruited annually in order to meet retrofitting targets, the action plan revises this figure to a need for 50,831 new entrants into the wider construction sector. The report also highlights a shorter-term challenge for craft professions, with an estimated shortfall for 2023-2025 of 4,483 such professionals. Noting this, the action plan states: “The requirement – at just over 30,000 new

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entrants – is much greater than the requirement for the other skills, and the combination of the pandemic and low growth in new housing prior to 2018, has had an adverse impact on the numbers of apprentices registering, and qualifying as craft workers.”

Bridging the gap A working group established amid the publication of the Report on the Analysis of Skills for Residential Construction and Retrofitting, 2023-2030 has found that there are age and gender challenges which, if alleviated, could contribute to an accelerating of the meeting of labour

Find out more www.kpmg.ie/infrastructure

demand in the construction sector.

More women (73 per cent) than men (57 per cent) acknowledge “an issue with female access to construction apprenticeships at second level”, with the report outlining that gender differences were evident in a student survey carried out by the working group, with only 18 per cent of girls reporting a good understanding of the construction apprenticeship compared with 42 per cent for boys. The report asserts that the “low level of understanding of the industry amongst girls” impacts their career decision making, with only 24 per cent positive about pursuing a career in the construction sector compared to 49 per cent of boys. Additionally, parents of senior cycle students, according to the action plan report, “overestimate their understanding of the sector and many incorrectly hold the view that girls are afforded the same access to opportunities”. Attitudes pose a major challenge to bridging this gap, as outlined by the fact that, according to the report, parents (76 per cent) and senior cycle students (54 per cent) continue to view apprenticeships as “more suitable to less academic school leavers”. In addition, the report finds that parents and students continue to associate the industry with on-site work while a majority of parents (76 per cent) see a

Social attitudes play an apparent role in preventing women from accessing careers in construction, with 76 per cent of parents seeing working in the industry as a more suitable environment for men while 70 per cent hold the view that it is unsuitable work for people as they get older, from the age cohort of 50-60 and upwards.

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The working group states that there are “notable differences” between women and men regarding attitudes to the construction sector.

career in the sector as a financially unstable option.

On recruiting women into construction, the report explains that women have only been 10 per cent of the construction workforce in recent years. This ratio is also reflected in the CSO’s Gender Balance in Business Survey 2021 where, in construction, just 9.5 per cent of the senior executives are women, a percentage that falls to just 4.5 per cent for directors. In reference to these statistics, the report asserts: “The construction sector needs to address this [gender] imbalance but by addressing it and removing the other barriers to careers in construction noted in this report, a pathway to ensuring a successful industry into the future can be found.” From collaborative stakeholder engagement, the report also asserts that employers recognise that the sector has a challenge with attracting and retaining staff, with a prominent view in business that the key barriers to attracting new workers are “a lack of promotion in schools, disinterest, job insecurity, and an unwillingness to work hard”.

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Credit: Rory Moore

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Tunnel vision

Egis operates Ireland’s Motorway Operations Control Centre on behalf of TII in a facility employing intelligent traffic systems and communications technology.

Steve Preece of Egis in Ireland explains why delivering the best infrastructure solutions must be matched with an ongoing commitment to maximising their full potential.

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As chief executive of Egis in Ireland, Steve Preece knows that designing and delivering quality infrastructure is crucial to facilitating economic and social growth that meets sustainability targets and stands the test of time. He also knows, however, that intelligent asset management and maintenance is paramount in building bigger and better in a way that can meet the future needs of communities, industry, and the planet. “When it comes to key sectors such as transport, we need to secure the value and maximise the potential of the assets we manage. At the same time, we need to deliver new and better infrastructure, but it is not just a case of delivery. To 112

get the full benefit it is vital to ensure that every existing asset is operated to the highest level of efficiency and that future assets go beyond current expectations. By doing this we can ensure they have the greatest impact for the longest time, achieving the best return on investment,” he says. When it comes to engineering and mobility service companies, Preece believes Egis is uniquely positioned. “At Egis, we share the same level of ambition for Ireland as our policymakers and we have unrivalled experience in matching ambition with delivery. Egis operates in over 100 countries with over 18,000 dedicated professionals. We are

involved in major infrastructure projects throughout the world and the expertise and insight this gives our teams means we can provide the best solutions at national and local level in the countries where we operate including Ireland.” Egis, he explains, designs, but also crucially operates tunnels, airports, water and energy infrastructure, buildings, bridges, roads, and other structures in addition to rail, bus, and active travel systems. “Our insight comes from our focus on providing end-to-end services from feasibility studies, through design and project management to handover. Meanwhile – and in a point of difference

from our peers – we can offer and have developed considerable expertise in ongoing operation, maintenance, and asset management,” he adds. The latter, Preece explains, involves optimising the use of a piece of infrastructure, and extending its life. On a day-to-day level, it is about maintaining standards and keeping infrastructure working safely while minimising disruptions.

Egis has been active in Ireland since 1994 and the business, which recently acquired JB Barry & Partners consulting engineers, now has over 600 staff across 16 offices nationwide. Egis participated in the design of the Luas system in Dublin and is involved in planned extensions of the transformative light rail service. They are active as designers in Bus Connects, and major road projects like the N/M20. The company has also operated Dublin Tunnel for TII since it opened in 2006 overseeing everything from toll collecting, to incident response, inspections, cybersecurity, asset management, and maintenance. Egis has undertaken a series of capital projects at the Tunnel including upgrades to the electrical systems, communications systems as well as current upgrades to Tolling system.

Steve Preece, CEO of Egis in Ireland, which offers end-to-end infrastructure design and operations services to clients.

“With strong national policies on transport, planning, sustainability and climate change mitigation, we stand at a time of unique opportunity to shape a better future for Ireland.” Globally, we are involved in 4,500km of road operations,” he adds. The expertise Egis offers is matched by a determination to constantly explore and deploy new technology and innovative approaches. “Innovation is central to achieving a more sustainable future including in our energy use and ongoing operations. A good example in this case is the upgrade of the Dublin Tunnel’s SCADA system, overseen by Egis which will deliver further improvements in the use of data to inform decision-making and enabling greater use of a predictive maintenance approach,” Preece says.

“We are actively involved in tunnel projects throughout the world and the experience we gain in one country can be applied elsewhere,” Preece says.

ESG principles are a central pillar of Egis’ approach. “The need to meet our own ESG responsibilities and to enable our clients to meet theirs informs every decision we make,” Preece says.

“In Australia, we operate and maintain Queensland’s tunnel network in Brisbane. In Turkey, we operate and maintain the Eurasia Tunnel, which is 5.4km long and connects two parts of Istanbul under the Bosphorus Strait.

“We are constantly exploring how we respond to the climate emergency. Over 50 per cent of our global road network, is now powered by green energy. And in Ireland, to give another example, we have reduced energy consumption in

the Dublin Tunnel by 60 per cent through measures that include the replacement of 1,800 lights with LED alternatives. No change is too small – that is why our maintenance team at the tunnel now carry out their work using electric bikes,” he says. Egis, Preece adds, is also focused on the S in ESG. “We prioritise working with the communities we operate in, engaging with local groups and supporting their work where possible,” he says. This is essential when your work involves delivering and overseeing major projects that can and should last for a long time.

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The company also monitors traffic on 1,200km of Ireland's primary road network from the Motorway Traffic Control Centre on behalf of TII. In addition, it operates 470km of motorway, which includes the Jack Lynch Tunnel in Cork, the Limerick Tunnel, and sections of the M7/M8, M1, and N25 Waterford Road.

Credit: Rory Moore

“We achieve all of this in partnership with our clients – like TII and the NTA, with whom we have been working for decades, relationships which are based on mutual trust as supportive flexible partners.”

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“It is also about continually driving down carbon emissions,” he says. “Improving climate change resilience, increasing efficiency and, where possible, lowering costs, and allowing for increased investment while reducing risk.

“Everything we do is focused on ensuring value and the greatest impact over the long term, so that is a big part of who we are and our approach,” Preece concludes.

W: www.egis-group.com

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Construction Sector Group programme for 2024 The Construction Sector Group announced its work programme for 2024, published prior to the group’s first of four meetings to take place during the year. The Construction Sector Group (CSG) has confirmed that four meetings are to be held throughout 2024, with the first having been held on 25 January, and meetings to come on 18 April, 11 July, and 24 October. With the minutes of the first meeting to be released during the 18 April meeting, it is understood that members of the group discussed an update on the Innovation Sub-Group, procurement reforms, construction skills and apprentices, and an update on Project Ireland 2040. Key items of work for the group include the publication of the Build 2024 report, typically published in the summer; the Prospects Report 2024/2025, which will provide an overview of 50 of the largest construction projects included in the Project Ireland 2040 tracker; and CSG meetings in 2024. The work programme states that meetings in 2024 “may need to change in response to feedback or unforeseen circumstances”. However, the group’s

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objective is that the core discussion topics in the form of standing items and associated cross-sectoral issues will be discussed as planned. These key items are complemented by four proposed broad themes and discussions for 2024. These are: improving regulation and public procurement; supporting innovation and digital adoption; securing the skills pipeline; and communicating the public investment pipeline. Established under the aegis of the now Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (DPENDPDR) in 2018, the Construction Sector Group aims to be a forum for regular dialogue between government and representatives from the construction industry. Chaired by the secretary general of DPENDPDR, its members include government officials, construction business representatives’ groups, and a representative from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU).

Its establishment is aimed to be an accelerant of Project Ireland 2040, the Government’s flagship long-term infrastructure and economic strategy. The group’s remit includes: •

working with industry and government bodies to (a) benchmark and improve productivity and environmental sustainability and (b) to modernise public works delivery;

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considering opportunities to introduce reforms within the sector that will help in controlling construction price inflation, improving efficiency, and delivering value for money for investment;

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assessing the supply of necessary skills and measures enhancing capacity (including potential use of overseas contractors); and

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challenges arising from inadequate or ineffective regulation, poor performance, and systemic poor quality.

Find out more www.kpmg.ie/infrastructure

Publication of first NPF revision imminent infrastructure and construction report

forum, which is to be chaired by a Minister of State with the stated objective of ensuring “the participation of relevant organisations, professional bodies and technical experts in the [planning policymaking] process”. The second of these is the reconstitution of the Project Ireland 2040 Delivery Board and Co-ordination Group, which is aimed at reducing the “administrative burden in delivering major projects”.

According to A Road Map for the First Revision of the National Planning Framework, and the Housing Minister, a draft of the first revision of the National Planning Framework (NPF) will be published in Q1 2024. Recent demographic and econometric modelling projects that population increases in Ireland and demand for accommodation has been underestimated and the State may require the delivery of tens of thousands of additional homes – beyond what was envisioned in Housing for All – by 2030. As such, in June 2023, government approved the commencement of the process to revise the NPF, the document which guides Ireland’s strategic planning and development to ensure sustainable growth alongside population growth. Under the Planning and Development Act 2000, government is required to either revise, replace, or state its rationale for not revising the NPF every six years after its publication. The NPF was originally published in March 2018. Publication of the draft revision of the NPF and accompanying technical assessment, as well as a national public consultation, had been slated for November 2023 to January 2024, with amendments considered and applied in February, and final approval in March.

However, at the time of print, this has not materialised. Speaking with eolas Magazine in June 2023, Minister for Housing Local Government and Heritage Darragh O’Brien TD made a commitment to “stick to the timeframe”, indicating that the revised NPF would progress “its various stages and back to go through by the first quarter [of 2024]”. The timeframe for the first revision was included in A Road Map for the First Revision of the National Planning Framework which had four objectives: 1. provide outline of the process and the intention of the revision to the NPF; 2. inform all interested parties of the revision; 3. outline the background to the process and the timeframes for each stage of the revision; and 4. confirm the consultation processes involved in the revision. It also proposed the creation of three new engagement structures. The first of these is a planning advisory

Third, the Government claims that higher-than-expected levels of migration will drive up construction requirements. With the objective of meeting the higher-than-expected levels of population growth, a joint ESRI research group has been established which can examine “demographic and econometric modelling”. In August 2023, the three-person Expert Group for the First Revision of the National Planning Framework published its report, which is informing the preparation of an Issues Paper being developed for stakeholder consultation. To strengthen and build upon the NPF, the report recommended: 1. the new targets should be more ambitious and more clearly defined; 2. the roles of the bodies involved in its implementation should be clarified and strengthened and mechanisms put in place for more detailed measurement and monitoring of its progress; and 3. there should be greater coordination at whole of government level across all infrastructure projects and new efforts made to generate broader support for national spatial planning across all of society. In the meantime, the Expert Group asserted: “Delays in the financing, planning, and delivery of key infrastructures have negatively affected our competitiveness over the past decade, and the benefits of greater sustainability in how we live and work will be key to competitiveness in the future.” 115

The challenges of building wind farms in Ireland Building wind farms in Ireland presents several challenges due to infrastructure and construction report

regulatory, environmental, and social factors. While Ireland boasts significant wind energy potential, harnessing it effectively requires navigating these complexities, writes Colm McGrath, Managing Director of Surety Bonds.

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One major obstacle is the planning process. The planning permission process in Ireland involves extensive environmental assessments, public consultations, and regulatory approvals. This can be time-consuming and costly, often leading to delays in project development. Additionally, Ireland’s landscape is rich in natural beauty, with many areas designated as protected habitats or cultural heritage sites. As a result, proposed wind farm sites may face opposition from environmental groups and local communities concerned about the impact on scenery, wildlife, and historical landmarks. Ireland’s wind resources are abundant but variable, relying heavily on turbulent weather patterns driven by the Atlantic Ocean. This intermittency poses challenges for grid stability and energy supply reliability requiring sophisticated forecasting and energy storage solutions to mitigate risks. Moreover, Ireland’s grid infrastructure faces constraints in certain regions,

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particularly rural areas where wind resources are abundant. The country’s electricity grid was designed primarily to accommodate traditional, centralised power generation sources, such as fossil fuels. Integrating large amounts of wind power into the grid requires upgrades to transmission lines and substations to handle the variable nature of renewable energy sources and to facilitate the transmission of electricity from remote wind farm locations to urban centres. Offshore have even more development challenges. While Ireland has vast offshore wind potential developing offshore wind farms involves even greater technical, regulatory, and financial complexities compared to onshore projects. Dealing with harsh marine environments, securing seabed leases, and addressing concerns from fishing industries and coastal communities all contribute to the difficulty of offshore wind development. Additionally, there are economic considerations. While wind energy has become increasingly cost competitive in

recent years, initial investment costs for wind farm development can be substantial. Securing financing for projects and obtaining favourable terms for grid connections can be challenging, particularly for smaller developers or in the face of uncertain policy support or market conditions. In conclusion, while wind energy holds great promise for Ireland’s renewable energy transition, the numerous challenges inherent in wind farm development underscore the need for comprehensive planning, stakeholder engagement, and innovative solutions to overcome barriers and realise the full potential of this clean energy source allowing Ireland to become a net exporter of renewable energy.

T: 086 818 9702 E: colm@suretybonds.ie W: www.suretybonds.ie

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