Ireland: Selected Issues
IMF Staff Country Reports, December 15, 2023
Source details
- Canonical URL
- Ireland: Selected Issues
Other formats
Bibliographic details
- Published: December 15, 2023
- Series: IMF Staff Country Reports
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9798400261428.002
Overview
- The Selected Issues paper provides an international perspective on two recent Irish policy measures:
- Setting up new savings and counter cyclical and climate infrastructure funds.
- Reforming the judicial review of planning decisions in Ireland.
- The paper is structured as two essays: the first on sovereign wealth fund design and operation; the second on planning and permitting system weaknesses and proposed legislative reforms.
Sovereign Wealth / Savings and Countercyclical and Climate Infrastructure Funds
- Findings:
- Presents international best practices in the design and operation of sovereign wealth funds relevant for Ireland’s two new funds.
- Highlights the importance of operating the funds within a strong fiscal policy framework.
- Policy implications and recommendations:
- Design and operate the funds consistent with international best practices to ensure fiscal and macroeconomic stability.
- Anchor fund operations in a clear fiscal policy framework to guide saving, investment, and withdrawal rules.
Planning, Permitting, and Judicial Review
- Findings:
- Reviews Ireland’s planning and permitting system and identifies key elements that have hindered public investment.
- Analyzes the government’s proposed Bill to reform the planning system and contrasts its key features with those of other international jurisdictions.
- Identifies several contributors to inefficiencies in planning and judicial review:
- Loose standing requirements.
- Lack of mandatory timelines related to judicial review.
- Institutional governance issues within the planning board.
- Notes that the newly proposed reforms and legislative measures seek to address these issues.
- Policy implications and recommendations:
- Tighten standing requirements to reduce frivolous or dilatory legal challenges that impede public investment timelines.
- Introduce mandatory timelines for judicial review processes to reduce uncertainty and delays in project implementation.
- Strengthen institutional governance of the planning board to improve decisionmaking and implementation capacity.
- Ensure that proposed legislative changes are benchmarked against international practices to balance access to justice with efficient permitting and investment delivery.
Key Takeaways
- Two complementary reform areas addressed:
- Fiscal and institutional design for new national funds (savings; counter cyclical and climate infrastructure).
- Legal, procedural, and governance reforms to accelerate planning and public investment.
- Core message: aligning fund governance with fiscal policy and modernizing planning and judicial review procedures are central to improving Ireland’s public investment outcomes.
International Monetary Fund. Ireland: Selected Issues.
Content in this bundle
- Ireland: Selected Issues; IMF Country Report No. 23/412; November 22, 2023