Population growth putting services ‘under huge pressure’, says Taoiseach

By Bairbre Holmes, PA

Infrastructure will be a focus of the Budget as the Government tackles issues caused by exponential population growth, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said.

Mr Martin said there was a need to “sort out” issues with Ireland’s water network, electricity grid, and public transport services as he claimed “the area we’re weakest internationally is infrastructure”.

Speaking at the launch of the Government’s action plan on competitiveness and productivity on Wednesday, the Taoiseach said the Government is “pivoting to intensive capital investment” as the population grows “exponentially”.

Mr Martin said he believes the issue of population growth has been discounted in “official thinking” with the Government needing to respond to services which are “under huge pressure”.

However, the Taoiseach said population increases bring positive impacts; both for economic competitiveness and because it has brought Ireland’s population almost back to pre-Famine levels.

Issues around infrastructure were among 85 measures to improve Ireland’s competitiveness and productivity outlined by the Government in its action plan.

The Taoiseach told reporters: “In plain language, competitiveness is about protecting jobs and creating new jobs.”

Other areas highlighted in the plan include “harnessing the potential of AI and digital technologies”, “boosting FDI (Foreign Direct Investments) and exports”, and “creating and scaling more SMEs (small and medium Enterprises)”.

Speaking at the launch of the plan, Tánaiste Simon Harris said past success is not a guarantee of being able to attract foreign direct investment in the future and emphasised the need to “listen to what people who are investing in our country are saying to us”.

He added: “We’ve also got to recognise that the bulk of jobs in Ireland are still provided by Irish-owned SMEs and how we can do more to support them.”