Business' role in tackling housing and infrastructure challenges

The latest CEO Update from Danny McCoy to Ibec membership. 

Dear member, 

If we are to realise ambitions of making Ireland a better place to live and work, we need to seriously address the increasing capacity constraints that the country faces, including a worsening housing crisis and problems of inadequate infrastructure. Efforts by Government and business to address these are being hindered by a planning regime that is unnecessarily costly, slow and cumbersome.

That is why yesterday’s publication of the Planning and Development Bill 2022 from Government was widely welcomed by industry, as it is viewed as being a catalysing component in addressing the key obstacles that have prevented many of the country’s infrastructure ambitions from being realised. Ibec has worked tirelessly in ensuring that the voice of business was heard in the shaping of this Bill and our efforts will now turn to ensuring that the provisions are enacted as soon as possible to deliver for the economy and society at large. You can read our media release welcoming the publication of the Bill here.

A better planning system however is just one part of the complex solution to addressing Ireland’s housing crisis. In a soon to be published Ibec CEO survey, over 70% of companies identified the availability of housing for staff as a challenge to their business operations in 2023, with 30% identifying it as a major challenge. Over 27% of businesses identified the impact of housing availability on employees as one of their top three external priorities for their business.

To help address this issue, next Monday we will be publishing a new report ‘Better Housing, Better Business’ advocating sustainable solutions to the housing crisis. At 10.00 am on 30th of January, Ibec is hosting a virtual event to launch this report and advance our campaign for better housing solutions. You can register for the event here.

Our housing campaign is an important part of Ibec’s broader Better Lives, Better Business campaign dedicated to making Ireland a great place to live and work.

As always if you have any comments or feedback, please let me know.

Kind regards,

Danny McCoy

CEO

Ibec