THE GOVERNMENT HAS been warned that there are significant shortfalls in four key areas of Ireland’s infrastructure.

Almost 80,000 additional workers may be needed to address Ireland’s infrastructure deficits according to the report by the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council.

It said that housing, healthcare, transport and electricity are the big challenge, with reforms “essential” to address the country’s weaknesses.

The Fiscal Council is responsible for providing independent assessments of how the Government is managing the public finances and the economy.

In a new report, the watchdog blamed the “slow and unpredictable nature” of our planning system for increasing the costs and delaying the delivery of infrastructure.

This new publication by staff at the Fiscal Council assesses Ireland’s infrastructure relative to other high-income European countries.

The 80,000 additional workers referenced by the group are needed mainly to build new housing and retrofitting existing homes, the report said.

However, it believes that “improved productivity” in the construction sector could significantly reduce this number to “less than 20,000″ workers.

The report’s lead author Niall Conroy said that Ireland’s infrastructure deficits are “long-standing issues which cannot be resolved overnight”, therefore requiring a planned and multi-year approach.

“Ireland already spends a high amount on public investment relative to the size of its economy. The challenge is sustaining this and getting better value for money,” Conroy said.

Addressing these infrastructure deficits could require an almost 80,000 additional construction workers. These are mostly required for building new housing and retrofitting existing homes. If productivity in the construction sector were improved, less than 20,000 extra workers would be needed. Reallocating existing construction workers to these projects could help too.”

The advisory council holds back from expressing confidence in whether the government’s new planning and development laws will assist in delivering infrastructure, simply noting that “time will tell” whether the reforms will succeed.

While the council says that some additional government investment may be required to deliver, it maintains that the amounts required are “modest relative to overall government spending”.

“Getting better value for money on existing spending could also help address infrastructure deficits,” the report said.

The council noted that Ireland has historically had a low level of infrastructure. While a gap to other high-income countries in Europe has narrowed from 47% per person in 1995, it still stands at 25% today.