{"id":148577,"date":"2025-10-27T23:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T23:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/148577\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T23:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T23:21:08","slug":"john-collisons-critique-of-irelands-failures-stirs-coalition-debate-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/148577\/","title":{"rendered":"John Collison\u2019s critique of Ireland\u2019s failures stirs coalition debate \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billionaire tech founder John Collison<\/a>\u2019s comments on Ireland\u2019s lethargic development of housing and infrastructure are \u201cfood for thought\u201d for the Department of the Taoiseach. <\/p>\n

Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers<\/a> has said Government infrastructure reforms will focus on \u201cmuch\u201d of the issues raised by Mr Collison, while a spokesman for Miche\u00e1l Martin agreed with the Stripe<\/a> founder on his comments about the slow pace of big projects. <\/p>\n

In an essay Mr Collison wrote for The Irish Times<\/a>, the 35-year-old Limerick native argued that too many regulators, government departments, public agencies and non-governmental organisations had placed too many constraints on large-scale infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Taoiseach said that \u201cJohn Collison\u2019s comments certainly are food for thought.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cHe is quite right in identifying the exponential growth of the Irish population as a key factor on the demand on infrastructure. It does take too long for infrastructure projects to get completed,\u201d the spokesman said, adding that \u201ca significant issue has been the heavy legal framework that has built up over the decades, both EU directives and national laws. We need to simplify that\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the 1970s there were less hurdles to getting things done quickly, but we now have higher standards of housing. Beyond all that, we see too many projects end up in the courts and in judicial reviews, rather than being dealt with through the planning system.\u201d The spokesman said that reforms of the Planning Act being enacted now \u201cshould make a difference\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Chambers told The Irish Times that \u201cinfrastructure taskforce reforms will incorporate a lot of change and is focused on responding to much of what he has highlighted\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Collison, who set up the payment technology firm with his brother Patrick in 2010, was praised by T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris<\/a> for his \u201cthought-provoking\u201d intervention on Ireland\u2019s failings on housing and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo many layers, too many structures, processes that take too long. Time for the pendulum to swing back. This will be a big part of my work and focus with colleagues in the months ahead,\u201d Mr Harris said on X on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cStreamlining processes, cutting through red tape and speeding up delivery must be at the core of all we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is understood the Stripe co-founder\u2019s intervention, in which he also argued politicians have ceded too much power to unelected officials, has become a major subject of discussion on both the Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a> and Fine Gael<\/a> backbenches.<\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il TD Malcolm Byrne<\/a> said he was now looking to ask Mr Collison to address his parliamentary party.<\/p>\n

Noting that the number of civil servants has increased by nearly 50 per cent in the past decade, Mr Byrne told The Irish Times there should be weekly meetings where officials are forced to account for the pace of housing and infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest frustration I have in politics is how long it takes for decisions to be made and for people wanting to lead. The public good requires us to treat delivering housing and infrastructure as urgent,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cI don\u2019t get that sense of urgency.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said elected representatives \u201chave ceded too much power to State agencies and unelected individuals who don\u2019t share the urgency of tackling major challenges, particularly housing<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fine Gael TD Colm Burke<\/a> said Ministers are \u201cfrustrated within departments where people are saying you can\u2019t do this or you can\u2019t do that\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to get our act together,\u201d he said, describing Mr Collison\u2019s argument concerning over-regulation and ceded power as \u201cdead right\u201d.<\/p>\n

He pointed to an example in his own constituency of Cork<\/a> North Central, where road infrastructure near the Apple<\/a> European headquarters in Hollyhill has remained unchanged for decades, despite more than 6,000 people being employed at the site.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now talking about doing an urban distributor road there. Even if we agree on the route in the morning, it will still take us five years before any work will start,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fine Gael TD James Geoghegan<\/a>, who also agreed with Mr Collison\u2019s assessment, said while Ireland had \u201cworld-class talent\u201d, it sometimes had \u201cthird-world delivery\u201d.<\/p>\n

The party\u2019s spokesman on Dublin<\/a> said for too long essential projects have been \u201ctrapped in a web of bureaucracy and endless legal challenges\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said new tools such as capping legal fees for judicial review cases \u201cmust be used boldly\u201d, adding that those who take such cases \u201cshould have some skin in the game\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billionaire tech founder John Collison\u2019s comments on Ireland\u2019s lethargic development of housing and infrastructure are \u201cfood for thought\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[311,9,10,87416,1877,52,18,13,14,4771,553,3428,6,8752,21681,19,17,26736,87417,55638,11,12,15,16,42224,5765,5,46138,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-148577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-apple","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-colm-burke","12":"tag-cork","13":"tag-dublin","14":"tag-eire","15":"tag-featured-news","16":"tag-featurednews","17":"tag-fianna-fail","18":"tag-fine-gael","19":"tag-government","20":"tag-headlines","21":"tag-housing-crisis","22":"tag-housing-demand","23":"tag-ie","24":"tag-ireland","25":"tag-jack-chambers","26":"tag-james-geoghegan","27":"tag-john-collison","28":"tag-latest-news","29":"tag-latestnews","30":"tag-main-news","31":"tag-mainnews","32":"tag-malcolm-byrne","33":"tag-micheal-martin","34":"tag-news","35":"tag-stripe","36":"tag-top-stories","37":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115448701448581971","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}