Analysis: Public engagement processes can enable positive outcomes in relation to delivering infrastructure projects

By Evan Boyle, Alexandra Revez, Aoife Deane and Brian Ó Gallachóir, UCC

Ireland's energy transition requires urgent and far-reaching infrastructural changes in the years ahead. In light of this (and other infrastructure requirements more broadly), the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Jack Chambers is establishing a new dedicated Infrastructure Division, and an associated taskforce involving Uisce Éireann, EirGrid and the ESB. The taskforce aims to "speed up" infrastructure delivery.

While constraints within the planning system can often negatively impact on the timely development of infrastructure projects, there is a real danger that efforts towards acceleration will sideline citizen participation in decision making and input into the planning process. The need for robust and effective citizen, community and public engagement processes, giving society a voice in shaping the unprecedented infrastructure developments ahead, is warranted both from a democratic perspective, and also considering our past experiences of how not to do things, such as the failed attempts to roll out water metering, and the tensions surrounding the development of Corrib Gas Terminal and Grid25.

Recent collaborative research between the MaREI Centre at UCC and EirGrid (Ireland’s electricity transmission system operator) has revealed a number of recent examples of how public engagement processes can enable positive outcomes in relation to delivering infrastructure projects, such as the recently approved 400 kV (kilo volt) electricity grid upgrade in Meath-Kildare.

The results of this research indicate that early engagement with citizens and communities is feasible and effective in delivering timely infrastructure projects related to grid development. This challenges some of the current narratives surrounding how best to accelerate the building of infrastructure, which reduces it to a contested relationship between infrastructure projects, the planning system, and local communities, failing to acknowledge the wider societal conversation needed on Ireland's future.

This research has also investigated the role of community benefit funding (a local fund generated by developers and transferred to communities affected by infrastructure initiatives) in enabling public participation in the energy infrastructure projects and in the energy transition. It is important to note the important role of the community forums that are developed to support public participation, representing the opinions of the community, offering advice on regional requirements, identifying chances for cooperation, resolving conflicts, giving project input, and developing the community benefit fund strategy.

Here, the research focused on three different funds associated with electricity grid infrastructure projects across three distinct geographic regions, namely in Clashavoon-Dunmanway (Co. Cork), Laois-Kilkenny, and the Celtic Interconnector, a 500km underwater electricity cable between Cork and Brittany. The research included surveys, focus groups, and fund-route analysis for each of the projects under investigation to garner community feedback on the approaches taken. The community response to the approach taken across all three cases was positive, with groups hoping to pursue similar opportunities moving forward.

Regarding the Celtic Interconnector, this 700 megawatt cable will move electricity bidirectionally across the Celtic Sea, providing a key contribution to Ireland’s security of electricity supply through a direct link to continental Europe. One additional aspect of our research on the Celtic Interconnector was investigating how pre-existing 'Celtic interconnections' are providing foundations for the Celtic Interconnector, drawing out the broader relationships which frame this new technological collaboration. For example, the cultural interconnections through language and music, and the historical interconnections through migration and trade.

Another key focus of this research has been assessing EirGrid’s institutional journey to embed public engagement in their strategic approach to infrastructure delivery. The journey was reflected on by one as: 'EirGrid has totally changed its approach from one of dictatorial engineer led design to one of meaningful consultation and listening to communities.’ To date the new approach has supported the delivery of projects, indicating that improved citizen and community participation is critical to infrastructure delivery.

However, the scale of change required means there is a danger that external pressures will seek to condense, minimise, or streamline engagement. There is an inherent tension between speeding up the low-carbon transition and engaging citizens in transition processes, which is an important consideration at the inception of the Infrastructure Division, with acceleration being front and centre of its announcement.

Read more: Why the Celtic interconnector is about more than just electricity

At a national level, through the National Dialogue on Climate Action (NDCA), the Government has recognised the key role which a whole of society approach to climate action must play. In prioritising citizen engagement, over the period 2021-2024, the NDCA engaged 15,000 members of the public and over 1,000 stakeholders in dialogue surrounding climate action and policy. The process successfully identified groups and communities taking action, whilst also highlighting where people lack information, knowledge, resources and capacity to do so. The recent Climate Action Plan 2025 seeks to enable a ‘strengthened social contract between the Government and the Irish people’ and a ‘vision of climate action for Ireland through the shared values of fairness, collaboration and positive change.’

Citizen engagement at both a governmental level and within organisations is increasingly recognised as a core process necessary for the transition to a low-carbon society. The new dedicated Infrastructure Division can offer a space to support deeper public engagement in relation to Ireland’s energy transition, working in collaboration with the Citizen Engagement division at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, and the organisations charged with delivering infrastructure.

To do this, however, the calls for acceleration must be situated in relation to processes of involving citizens meaningfully in decision making on processes of change. There is a need to foster conversation and build a stronger shared sense of the nation’s future and the role infrastructure plays therein. This is particularly important due to the changing global political and economic landscape that is pushing towards increasing rather than reducing the democratic deficit.

Dr Evan Boyle is a postdoctoral researcher with the Department of Sociology and Criminology, University College Cork and the ERI/MaREI Centre. Dr Alexandra Revez is a Research Fellow in MaREI and is located in the Environmental Research Institute in UCC. Professor Brian Ó Gallachóir is Director of ERI/MaREI and Associate Vice-President of Sustainability at UCC.