I became executive director for safety, technical and engineering for Network Rail, which is the owner of rail infrastructure in Britain. In March 2016, I became the chief executive of the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, a government trading fund delivering services to over 40 million customers. I retired from that role in December of last year.
I have also been fortunate to have a parallel non-executive career. I floated the waste management company, Biffa plc, where I chaired the board HSE committee and I set up the UK’s Renewable Fuels Agency where I chaired the audit and risk committee. I am currently a non-executive director and chair of the remuneration and nominations committee at Harwich Haven Authority, where we provide the pilots for the world’s largest container ships arriving at the Port of Felixstowe. I fulfil the same role at Sage Housing, a private equity-backed provider of high-quality, affordable and social housing in England. For the past 16 years, I have been a fellow at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, providing training for businesses on issues such as net zero carbon, human rights and commercialising sustainable development.
My infrastructure experience has been reasonably extensive, ranging from overhead power lines in the UK, undersea power cables in Australia, a new port in Brazil, rail infrastructure in the UK to deepening the channel in the North Sea to accommodate future growth in container ships.
With regard to corporate governance, my experience ranges from establishing a new government agency, chairing board committees in both the private and the private equity sectors, chairing a government trading fund until I appointed an independent chair and as a member of governance committees for two global listed companies. I hope my experience on safety, standards and sustainability will be of benefit to TII as takes its next step on its journey.
I was told previous to the meeting that the committee is interested in hearing my views on the strategic priorities while in the role. I need to preface any views I may offer by informing the committee I was appointed nine days ago. As such, I am very early on in my assessment of the expectations placed on TII and the overall governance arrangements needed to ensure TII is successful. Therefore, please take the following statements as my very early views.
The first area is the national development plan, NDP. As this committee knows better than anybody, the NDP was published in October 2021 and sets out the development activities for national roads and public transport projects that Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, will address between 2021 and 2030. It should be recognised that, of course, TII is first and foremost a delivery organisation working in collaboration with local authorities while taking its lead from both the Department of Transport on national roads and national greenways, and the National Transport Authority, NTA, in regard to both the Luas and MetroLink.
In an ideal world, funding would be made available to support all projects irrespective of their stage of development. However, TII must operate within the funding made available and will take its lead from the Department of Transport and the NTA in determining where investment should be best made to achieve value for money and to deliver more sustainable transport infrastructure and services.
Against this backdrop, however, maintaining the assets we already have across the road and Luas rail network is essential for the safety of users, maintaining the value of those assets and ensuring continuity of service delivery. TII’s knowledge of the condition of assets, being proactive in their maintenance and, where needed, renewal, will reduce the risk as well as the inconvenience to the travelling public and the risk of significant additional investment associated with asset failure; that is the one thing one needs to avoid. Maintaining existing assets is both common sense and good value. Unfortunately, it does not result in too many photo opportunities, which is some of the downside.
When it comes to new infrastructure, whether it be a new road or light rail, such as MetroLink, for example, I am very conscious that external factors can often result in delays adding cost to the project and leaving the public waiting longer than expected before they see improvements in travel. TII has a proven history of delivering projects and the skills and capability to deliver the new infrastructure. It will need to work closely with stakeholders to ensure any potential delays at all stages in the process are minimised.
The second area is the carbon action plan. The conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, recently reinforced at COP26, serve to highlight the importance of a transition to net zero carbon by 2050 if we are to keep global temperature increases to below 1.5°C. In keeping with the EU’s Fit for 55, the Government has set a target for a 51% reduction in emissions by 2030. Road transport is, at present, responsible for around 18% of Ireland’s carbon emissions. In playing its role in reducing this impact, TII will work closely with the Department of Transport and others.
For example, modal shift from personal vehicles to public transport and active travel, demand management interventions and changes to infrastructure design. Accommodating growth in electric, hybrid and hydrogen-fuelled vehicles require policy interventions, investment in infrastructure and new services. All represent a sizeable challenge and TII will need to assess how its obligations in the NDP can deliver the required change. With its highly professional and capable workforce, TII will play an important role in facilitating the change and delivering the carbon reduction targets.
The third area is road safety strategy. As the committee knows, TII has a duty to deliver a safe and efficient national road network and a strategic goal to improve the safety of light rail. The safety of transport users, of our colleagues and of our contractors and partners is of paramount importance. Everyone has a right to get home safe at the end of every day. That is very simple. In addition to its maintenance, renewal and enhancement of infrastructure and its management of the road and light rail network, TII will deliver projects and programmes to support the soon to be published road safety strategy.
As we seek to encourage active travel, embedding the safe systems approach into TII’s design standards and guidance documents will be important for enhancing safety for vulnerable road users.
One safety enhancement currently being implemented is the dynamic traffic management system on the M50. I understand that the Chair and members of this committee visited the motor operations control centre to gain an understanding of the project to inform its scrutiny of the legislation that will make the variable speed limits and lane closures enforceable. I hope members found that visit useful and, of course, members are more than welcome to visit again should they need to.
From a finance perspective, in the annual report in 2020, TII acknowledged the support from both the outgoing Minister and the current Minister, Deputy Ryan, given the impact Covid-19 had on income, particularly in relation to tolling and light rail operations. With the reintroduction of some restrictions, income is again likely to be affected during 2021 and into 2022. TII will continue to ensure its activities are delivered as efficiently as it can, thereby keeping any further recourse to public funds to a minimum.
The precise timing of expenditure for multi-year capital programmes can be uncertain. Projects can be subject to delays in the planning process as well as unexpected factors which arise during construction. TII will continue to engage with stakeholders to reduce any such delays and will continually improve programme planning to optimise the allocation of resources.
I will turn to my final area which is around governance for success. As I mentioned to the board when they met on 23 November, my primary goal as chair is to ensure TII is successful in delivering its statutory responsibilities and its obligations under the NDP. In this regard, I see the board as having three critical roles: to ensure the organisation’s strategy aligns with TII’s statutory responsibilities and Government priorities and is deliverable within the funding envelope; to ensure the executive benefit from access to the counsel, guidance and advice of the talented non-executive directors on the TII board; and to ensure TII efficiently delivers infrastructure and services which stand the test of time, contribute to reducing carbon and keep the travelling public safe whether they travel by light rail or road.
Through discussions prior to my appointment, I have the sense that existing governance arrangement and capability of colleagues at TII are both held in high regard. That said, of course, the future always involves an element of change, and ensuring the governance model is set up for success will be a key focus for me.
I thank the committee for its time and I am, of course, very happy to answer any questions as best I can.
