Delivery of NDP projects have been adversely impacted over the past 3 years as a result of pauses due to the pandemic, the inflationary impacts from both COVID and the war in Ukraine and the follow-on impacts on the supply chain. 

The highs and lows of the global economy have created a new set of challenges and opportunities for the delivery of infrastructure.

With infrastructure projects remaining key to economic recovery and growth, it is critical that delivery is prioritised whilst value for money is achieved. So where are we now in terms of delivery? 

This panel will discuss: 

• The impact of rising interest rates and inflationary costs have on infrastructure investment and delivery
• How can industry, investors and government work together to ensure optimum delivery outcomes?
• What are the key roadblocks for effective delivery and how can we overcome these?
• How can we ensure the NDP delivery aligns to regional development objectives and what areas of infrastructure are a priority to ensure regional economic benefit? 

Within infrastructure planning and development, there lies a massive opportunity to achieve climate targets and sustainability goals. From reimagining how we consume energy and what source of energy we use within every asset class, to building wind farms to generate clean energy to power our assets. But with this opportunity come many challenges such as how to get such a major shift in how we think about our systems right.

This panel will discuss the new and innovative models we are seeing globally that will better connect our infrastructure and climate goals.

Areas of focus include: 

• Sustainable transport/Electric mobility
• The energy system – what do we need from the grid?
• Cycling & Greenways programme
• Renewables (Solar and wind energy infrastructure)
• Sustainable construction and energy efficient homes

This session will explore:

• How TfL are aligning transport to growth and demand for housing and other key infrastructure
• How investment in transport can feed into and enable ‘The London Plan’
• What can Ireland learn from the TfL journey?

Investing in strong strategic spatial planning is not only a key but arguably the factor in ensuring the delivery of the critical infrastructure. We have seen the positive results of effective master-planning, mapping out key development milestones in action.

In this session we will explore how careful evaluation, robust stakeholder engagement and a clearly defined strategic spatial plan can lead to the successful delivery of the critical infrastructure we all depend on.

• Achieving optimum long term project outcomes through effective planning and governance
• Ensuring return on public investment and attracting private investors through good governance 
• Aligning the planning and procurement process to the climate goals of infrastructure delivery

This session will focus on:

• How taxation can address the growing width, height and emissions of private passenger vehicles, particularly SUVs 
• How a national per-kilometre truck toll, with a 75% reduction for zero emission (electric and hydrogen) vehicles, can clean up road freight  
• Highlighting the developments on the above issues from across the EU and explore potential application in Ireland

This spotlight will explore the Uisce Éireann Capital Investment Plan, how this aligns to the NDP and enables other infrastructure development projects. We will learn about a series of key projects such as Cork Lower Harbour, Arklow, Athlone and Ringsend.

This session will discuss the: 

• Irish Rail Capital Investment programme and projects
• Planning and modeling for regional transport hubs
• New climate challenge we face and how we are tackling this through the East Coast infrastructure protection programme