Comment/Paddy Purcell: In May this year the World Competitiveness Yearbook ranked Ireland 28th of 29 countries for infrastructure development.

That's why the National Infrastructure Board announced by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, last weekend is so essential. The State simply cannot continue with the convoluted, costly, time-consuming and uncertain project approval system currently in place.

But in addition to a single project approval authority which will combine the separate functions of the local authorities, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Health & Safety Authority, Government Departments and Bord Pleanála, we also need a special division of the High Court to streamline the legal process.

At present we have an intolerable situation where objectors can take even the most spurious objection to the highest judicial level, safe in the knowledge that costs will be awarded to them "in the public interest" and that at minimum projects will be delayed and costs increased. This cannot continue.

We need the High Court to deal in a constructive and commonsense way with objectors, and to come down hard on spurious objections which can add millions in euros and years in time to the delivery of essential infrastructure.

Take the Glen of the Downs road project. There the High Court allowed protesters a judicial review despite being well outside the specified period and despite the applicants not having been previously involved in the process. This resulted in further considerable delay and significant cost to the taxpayer.

Although the objectors lost their case, they had their costs paid by the State.

The Institution of Engineers of Ireland recently made a detailed submission to the Government on reforming the current project approval process which is too convoluted and too costly, results in long delays in major projects, and leaves their timescale and outcome unpredictable.

The IEI wants: decisions of the new infrastructure board to be subject to review only by the new High Court division; these two bodies to have legally binding timescales for giving decisions; both bodies to be provided with adequate technical and legal resources; the current multi-layered public consultation process to be streamlined significantly in the interests of those with a genuine concern about projects to speed up implementation and reduce costs; the new board to be able to permit modifications and improvements to approved projects without requiring submission of a new application.

We also proposed that the State should, in the interest of the common good, be enabled to acquire land or property for critical infrastructure development at a fair price related to its original market value. And access to and use of land more than 10 metres below ground level should be available to the State without payment of compensation other than for loss of income or restoration.

These measures would represent a fair balance between the sometimes competing constitutional rights of private property, on the one hand, and the common good on the other. We hear plenty about the right to private property ownership as enshrined in Article 43.1 of our constitution, but not nearly enough about the other constitutional right spelled out in the very next section of that Article which asserts the right of the State to "delimit by law the exercise of the said rights [to private ownership] with a view to reconciling their exercise with exigencies of the common good"

Public infrastructure delivers a benefit to every citizen and to society as a whole. This fact should be taken more into account and the constitutional requirement relating to "exigencies of the common good" must be given greater recognition in Government policy, in statutory instruments and in planning and judicial decisions.

It is also essential that the public consultation process for large infrastructure projects be rationalised, made more formal and have legally binding timescales for decision. Of course, it is important to recognise the right of individuals and organisations to object and be heard - this democratic right must remain.

However, the system must ensure that objections motivated by narrow self-interest, ie. "not in my back yard", and objections guided by misinformed minority groups, do not delay vitally-needed infrastructure.

Paddy Purcell is director general of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland. The IEI is the representative body of the engineering profession on the island of Ireland across all disciplines, in all industry sectors and in the public service. With over 21,000 members, it is the largest professional body on the island.