John Collison on why Ireland can't do infrastructure

plodder

Long piece in last Saturday's Irish Times by Stripe co-founder John Collison that argues part of the reason why we can't deliver infrastrusture is politicians delegating power to quangos and agencies. Colm Keena wrote a really good summary of it in the same edition, but I can't find a link to it.

There's a fairly poor effort at a rebuttal by John McManus in today's IT. The first half reads like "Who does this upstart think he is?" as if whatever "links" he has to people like Elon Musk or Peter Thiel has any relevance at all to this question. The second part goes on to partly agree with him, then identify one issue which is our hyper sensitive and locally biased election system but fails to identify the bigger problem, namely Ireland's culture of litigation and chronically inefficient legal system.

One arguable (if cynical) point made by McManus is that politicians like nothing better than handing off responsibility for delivery to agencies and regulators to get themselves off the hook. I find it very defeatist (and wrong) to think we would have to change our election system to fix that or other aspects to this problem.

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-style/people/2025/10/25/john-collison-of-stripe-ireland-is-going-backwards-heres-how-to-get-it-moving/

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2025/10/29/john-collisons-analysis-of-irelands-problems-is-a-little-naive/

LambshankRedemption

Who does this upstart think he is?

Aside from being a self made multi-billionaire?

volchitsa

Very good article from Collison - I hadn’t read it till now but I had seen objections to it, funny enough. All based on character assassination rather than an examination of his arguments of course.

It does seem like a lot of people hate Collison and anything he does. There’s a degree of “tall poppy” syndrome going on there I think.

That second article, by John McManus, is almost funny in how it does the same thing but tries to sound reasonable:

His association with various skin-shedding west coast venture capitalists does not mean that Collison’s diagnosis of the problems that Ireland faces is wrong. But his hinterland should be considered when assessing his proposed solution.

His “hinterland” is not relevant in assessing his proposed solutions: only his diagnosis and proposed solutions are relevant. The author can’t deny that the diagnosis is correct so instead he tries to dismiss possible solutions, which by definition are unproven, using his earlier character assassination.

It’s pathetic, when as you say McManus actually agrees with most of the solutions but then basically accuses Collison of wanting to use these genuine problems to undermine democracy. I can’t see the point of his long character smear in the first half of the article otherwise.

But he didn’t show that the changes that he agrees Collison is right about do require FPTP. Why does everything in Ireland have to be “Britain does it”? Other countries manage to have representative parliamentary democracies and effective gouvernance. Sweden has PR and a very high rate of trust in government.
McManus’ objection makes no sense at all. Which is why he just announced it as fact I suppose.

xckjoo

Saw an excellent rebuttal of it on reddit. Basically showing his complete lack of domain knowledge in the area and how his ideas completely miss the mark on what the causes are and what's needed to address them. It's amazing how often successful STEM type people seem to forget this.

I'll try and find it and link to it but it was on the Ireland or irishpolitics subreddits

plodder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123945338#Comment_123945338

Post a link if you find it. I'd say he has some "domain knowledge" having built a new HQ for his company in Dublin and probably had other dealings with the planning system as well.

spillit67

It’s not perfect but the reaction of some quarters to it is funny. There’s a weird aversion to people in business commenting on the country, other interests are fine but suspicious reigns if someone like him does it.

This guy doesn’t need to care about Ireland, let’s be honest.

spillit67

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123945338#Comment_123945338

Which domain? The article isn’t specific on any of them.

I’d be very wary of taking certain planners word on some of this, they have driven many of the problems we see.

plodder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123945290#Comment_123945290

"hinterland" is such an odd word. It's certainly "asking questions" if not actually assassinating his character. Some of the questions are a bit bizarre though and quite a few degrees removed from what the article is supposed to be about. Like this paragraph:

Sequoia Capital is one of the largest shareholders in the $100 billion company the two brothers created and Patrick Collison is said to be close to one of the firm’s partners Shaun Maguire, who recently described the New York city mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani as an “Islamist” who “comes from a culture that lies about everything”

Literally a friend of his brother's once called a candidate for the New York mayor's election (Zohran Mamdani) an "Islamist". What has any of that to do with this country's ability to build things? 😀

I think social media has the strange effect on some people of melding all controversies and political questions into the one thing …

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123945417#Comment_123945417

It probably stems from lots of these celebrity business people (or celebrities in general) being wrong when they talk about stuff outside their area of expertise.

I don't think he is wrong for the most part in that article but most of it is basically what you hear in every pub in the country. We are supposed to think it's insightful because he has the connections to get his thoughts on the Irish Times.

Podge_irl

I think his core point that we have denuded our politicians of power in an attempt to address frequently baseless concerns about corruption is very astute. These people are elected very specifically to consider the trade-offs with every decision and come to a conclusion (whether we agree with it or not). Delegating that power to agencies with singular agendas is a recipe for the mess that we are now in.

LambshankRedemption

Nothing he said in that article is wrong, so I look forward to reading anyone's attempt at a rebuttal.

As we know, some people really hate any criticism of Ireland. They take it personally. He is simply pointing out, we could do so much better. We have done so much better in the past. We are capable.

spillit67

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123945552#Comment_123945552

I’d say it’s pretty well informed. I take issue with the “backwards” and idea that we aren’t getting anything done but there is a pendulum that’s gone too far. It’s the point on well meaning regulation that needs to be revisited. He also doesn’t do the lazy “corrupt kip” stuff that we see online.

There has to be an ultimate mechanism for Cabinet to make decisions. The latest Judicial Review against the Minister for Housing making changes to regulations is an example of how we’ve lost that balance.

dmakc

Tech bro wants red tape cut with no actual solutions. One of the most overhyped articles that ever existed, with nothing that no one hasn't said already. Of course it's the Irish Times.

cheese sandwich

I don’t think it’s news to say that we have become over-regulated, over-bureaucratised, and over-cautious in how we do things in this country in the last 20 years. The government has been reiterating the point ad nauseum. The reality is though that our political system mitigates against change because anyone who tries to do anything will immediately run into a wall of nay-sayers and objectors. In that regard, McManus’s article is right. As he says, the most popular politicians in this country are those that are furthest away from power, because that means that can blather on to their hearts’ content and show how ‘authentic’ they are without having to actually piss anyone off directly

spillit67

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123945762#Comment_123945762

And you’re contributing a lot with the “Tech Bro” stuff. About as original as those saying Metrolink will never be built.

The piece has quite a few proposals, did you even read it?

dmakc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123945793#Comment_123945793

I'm saying he has an interest in a particular aspect of infrastructure which, from now, leaves the average citizen no better off.

I have read it, as I said, nothing tangible or new. Can you share the part that blew your mind?

plodder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123945604#Comment_123945604

I think it's a legacy of the tribunals and the general "Ireland is a corrupt, third world kip" attitude that is widely held and encouraged by certain elements in politics.

It's not helped by despite spending tens of millions on said tribunals, the conclusions they came to on actual corruption that did occur, were watery to say the least. Which itself is partly driven by the insane priority given to an individual's "good name" over the public interest in knowing what is going on.

It seems like everything in the public sector is now driven by keeping the appearance of propriety rather than getting the right result. I was talking to someone who did a PS job interview recently. It was basically a knowledge quiz, with questions taken straight from an enormous "manual". I assume it's done this way to avoid any suggestion of bias. But, how do you judge a candidate's ability to work hard for example? Procurement seems to be highly bureaucratic and process driven. Also, no political decision ever gets made without "commissioning a report" first.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123945762#Comment_123945762

Cutting the red tape is the solution. We are significantly worse at building vital infrastructure today than we used to be and we are experiencing no benefit from these roadblocks.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123945803#Comment_123945803

The average citizen would be far better off if transport infrastructure and housing were easier to deliver.

spillit67

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123945766#Comment_123945766

This is true in that the electorate have been rewarding those who can succeed on micro issues and those who can keep “clean hands” on decisions. With the rise of click bait media and also social media, it is no longer necessary to have a large party machine behind you. The Irish system rewards this in particular as it has always provided Independent voices more of a chance.

There is an increasing realisation though amongst politicians though of the traditional parties or the “centre” that a lack of assertive leadership is damaging. You can see this with the Labour Party in the UK where their manifesto and platform has left them unable to deal with events. Like him or not, part of Trump’s success is the perception that he does things. To me the centre ground here has tried to be people pleasers to a loud online crowd (who will never vote for them) and also fearful of things like a NCH. Covid though should though provide the evidence that assertive leadership yields popularity. Indeed if you even go back to Brexit, peak popularity for that Government was when they were asserting Ireland’s interests.

A problem that Collison doesn’t mention is actually the lack of assertive leadership in the Civil Service/Semi State sector. The rewards monetarily are not good enough and nor is the pressure involved. What sane person wants to be hauled in front of grandstanding politicians?

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123945808#Comment_123945808

I think it's a legacy of the tribunals and the general "Ireland is a corrupt, third world kip" attitude that is widely held and encouraged by certain elements in politics.

Yes, I think this is a massive problem and the "solution" to this largely made up problem has been to hamstring the decision making power of elected officials.

spillit67

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123945803#Comment_123945803

I didn’t say anything blew my mind, I simply pointed out that your statement on solutions was factually incorrect.

It really seems people prefer lazy discussions b based on labels rather than anything substantive.

Ozymandius2011

I agree with him.

I think a lot of how we got here is the Tribunals. This was the reason we introduced these checks and balances, but in my opinion has now gone too far.

I do wonder if the hundreds of quangos (I recall it being around 700 in the 2007 election when FG talked about how FG would get rid of many quangos - didn't happen) are slowing down decisionmaking, as well as planning appeals.

I think if democratically elected cllrs were deciding on planning, more would be built because the local electorate would demand it.

plodder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123945878#Comment_123945878

Or the opposite would happen. NIMBYism would rule the roost. It's a big problem not just here but in parts of the US and the UK as well. I think our planning system is not that bad. It's when it gets to the courts that the real problems arise imo.

xckjoo

'll copy my reply from the other thread.

It's absolutely not a 'milquetoast' critique as he's bringing in conspiracy theory bullshit about 'unelected hidden bureaucrats' being the real problem. It's textbook far-right libertarian bullshit, that's just an excuse for his company to pay less tax and have more freedom to misbehave.

He's talking about housing here, but he'll be saying the same on financial regulation etc given the chance.

He's a non-expert, with no experience in the area, offering an opinion in a national newspaper, solely because of his wealth that was generated by a company that doesn't even have a tangential connection with any of the topics he expounds on.

It's possible to disagree with someone being given a platform, regardless of what views they promote via that platform.

Separately,

Our shortage of roads

We have the highest per capita road network in Europe, and are average for motorway road network per capita (page9)

railways

Railway length isn't a useful metric, passengers per capita is. The issue with Ireland is less the railway length and more the carrying capacity of the existing trainlines that do serve a large proportion of the population.

Not only do we run a low number of services, we also run them at a low speed, and carrying capacity is frequency + passenger capacity over time.

Building new railway lines would be much less beneficial than improving the existing main lines to enable medium speed rail.

We're also below-average but far from the worst, considering how car-centric both our culture and our politics are - it's not the worst.

sewers

From what I recall, most capital cities in Europe are expected to run out of drinking water over the next decade or two if nothing is done, due to a combination of climate change and population growth. It's not an Ireland thing. The slowness of connecting up development land to sewer systems is a separate issue from our overall sewer systems, and one he doesn't call out.

homes

But we know we're not building enough homes. Everyone knows we're not and unusually, even the Government admits we aren't. He doesn't offer any solutions, nor does he offer any insight.

pylons

This is a new one. Yes there are planning issues with pylons, but there's nothing systemic about it and it isn't the cause of our high electricity prices.

Our electricity prices will always be higher because we're a small, local market that's only slightly integrated into the European power market (most of Europe buys electricity from a few net-exporters like France that keeps down prices). We have a very low population density per capita spread across most of the country which drives up network costs, we rely on fossil fuels for generation still, and we're a high cost base on top.

None of that is about Pylons.

The Grid West transmission project, linking Dublin to the windy west, was shelved in 2017.

It was shelved because a proposed 5,000 hectare windfarm was cancelled and there was no reason to build 400kv DC power lines anymore.

Water Supply Project

It hasn't been built largely because it hasn't been needed. Building infrastructure 50 years before its needed isn't prudent spending. Irish Water are finally progressing this, and they're doing it slowly, methodically and with an abundance of caution in terms of public consultation to ensure its as legally safe as possible.

Greater Dublin Drainage Project

This is valid, but its the wrong point. It's not about infrastructure, it's about the government still not setting up a special court just for infrastructure judicial reviews. We have the commercial court to fast track high court cases, and yet the government is happy to let planning cases languish for years in the court.

North-South interconnector

Successfully gained planning in Ireland in 2016. The 9 years (and counting) delay has been due to Stormont and legal action in NI.

Intel, Ireland’s flagship manufacturing tenant, picked Germany over Leixlip, Co Kildare

Intel chose Germany over Ireland because the German state offered them huge subsidies that the Irish state did not. Ironically, Intel later cancelled the plant in Germany.

The pre-construction phase for motorway projects has extended to eight years.

But motorways are not a problem and it's weird that he's raising them as one.

Instead, restrictions in the form of planning policies emerge from a mysterious process involving officials from local authorities, the Department of Housing and the Office of the Planning Regulator. This happens far from the public eye.

There's zero evidence for this. In fact, I've never seen this argument made before, and as someone who studied urban economics, it's an area I keep abreast of in Ireland.

In that time money, attention and political capital have been lavished on housing and infrastructure. But the problems remain stubbornly unsolved. This suggests there’s something else going on.

Now's he veering off into conspiracy-theory land.

The answer is that our processes to decide on what gets built and where have broken down. Those decisions are now made by bodies that do not, and cannot, think holistically about the tasks we have set them.

What the actual **** like. People like Ronan Lyons, the CIF, SCSI and other experts regularly tell us what the real causes they are - and it's not a shadowy cabal of backroom bureaucrats.

Techbros are the dumbest 'smart' people because they do the really stupid thing of thinking, because they're successful and knowledgeable in one area, they don't need any expertise or learning in another to be able to offer an intelligent, wise opinion in it. It's why philanthropy in the US is so broken, with people like Bill Gates funding charter schools out of 'charity'.

John has done great for himself, but he's a conspiracy-theorist spreading FUD over something that's already been explained and that we already know the answers for.

More apprenticeships for construction trades.

More resources for planning bodies

A specialised fast-track court just for planning judicial reviews

Primary legislation for governmental infrastructure projects

Updated primary legislation on compulsory purchase orders

Higher land-value tax on zoned development land to make land-hoarders use it or lose it

Public-private partnerships with builders for large scale developments

Centralised planning for strategic spatial 'new' districts for major cities that are designed from the ground up to be provided with and connected to infrastructure

I was learning this in college over a decade ago for gods sake.

https://old.reddit.com/r/irishpolitics/comments/1ofrqzk/john_collison_of_stripe_ireland_is_going/nlc4m30/

spillit67

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123945849#Comment_123945849

If you go back further and in an international context, one of the most influential books on planning was the Robert Caro biography on Robert Moses in the 70s.

The reaction to that was more systems, regulations and “democratic planning”.

The reaction wasn’t wrong but this is all a pendulum. Collison mentions Progress Ireland but he should have mentioned these excellent paragraphs from last week;

In Sophocles’ Antigone, Tiresias, a blind prophet, declares that “[a]ll men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.”

The same could be said of governments: all make mistakes. But the good ones undo them. Tiresias himself was an experienced government advisor, so we should take his advice seriously.

This government has made some progress on undoing past mistakes. In recent years, too little land was made available to build on. The National Planning Framework (NPF) restricted the amount of zoned land. Recent section 28 guidance, however, instructs councils to zone in excess of the NPF’s targets. Similarly, costly regulations have been partly to blame for high apartment construction costs. These too have been partly wound back. Finally, rental pressure zones (RPZs), some of the strictest rental regulations in the world, have been partly reformed. But, as with all things, there is more to do.

All of these policies began with a nice idea. High apartment standards are not intended to price out ordinary people. They are intended to improve the living standards of apartment dwellers. Similarly, rent regulations exist not to remove the incentive to build more homes, but to protect vulnerable renters. But side-effects exist. Regulations should be judged by their effects, not by their intentions.

Regulations aren’t a problem, the problem is not going back and considering how well they work.

I’m sure a “planner” debunking this will say that if everything is followed to the letter, then everything works. But one thing with planners is that as much as they can criticise a “tech bro” for a lack of capacity, they themselves have a lack of capacity in both generating and allocating capital. There was a recent planning decision where the next phase of a massive residential and commercial project has been delayed because a bike/pedestrian addition to a bridge that was supposed to be built hasn’t been started yet. That planner works for the council supposed to be building it. It’s been delayed because of the usual stuff. I get that we’d ideally have this built before starting it, in a perfect planning world that would have happened. We criticise frequently building before infrastructure, but the cost here is likely a development that ticks all the boxes asked of it but was let down by the council/organs of the State.

At the end of the day, the developer has on site a huge amount of raw materials and capital waiting to go, but they'll have to move those elsewhere for a couple or years. That will add to cost and by the time it’s built, the scheme with planning will probably need to be changed. To me there has to be someone who can overrule such a decision in a transparent way.

Idbatterim

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123945338#Comment_123945338

The two biggest culprits, those absolute wasters , Harris and martin, seemingly taoiseach anf tanaiste. These must be ceremonial roles. Because what have those two oxygen thieves been doing, for the last few decades and years ?

Covid comes along... here king Tony, you make all the decisions, so we don't have to...

plodder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123945902#Comment_123945902

It's absolutely not a 'milquetoast' critique as he's bringing in conspiracy theory bullshit about 'unelected hidden bureaucrats' being the real problem. It's textbook far-right libertarian bullshit, that's just an excuse for his company to pay less tax and have more freedom to misbehave.

Not one of these three words appear anywhere in the article. Are you sure you read it?

"Just an excuse for his company to pay less tax?" That's absolutely crazy. He owes this country nothing.

Some of what he is saying comes across as a littles simplistic and maybe even populist. The thing about the DAA and the airport ramps a good case in point. I'd forgive him being misinformed on that one given its relative triviality. But, the post you quote is nothing more than a reflexive anti-techbro rant.

I can't believe anyone would justify the lack of progress on the North Dublin drainage scheme, with the (dubious) claim that all other capital cities are expected to run out of water as well. But even that argument doesn't explain the lack of progress on public transport.

Ozymandius2011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123945902#Comment_123945902

The loss of the Amazon plant because a power supply couldnt be found?

Also the National Childrens Hospital that is the most expensive hospital in the world (or was at one point).

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123945902#Comment_123945902

As suspected, the poster took the criticisms personally, and starts throwing around conspiracy theory labels.

"He's a non-expert, with no experience in the area"

I would ask where does that posters expertise lie?

Podge_irl

That is an utterly dreadful rebuttal. Half of it is "he is right about the problem but he has these minor details incorrect".

The answer is that our processes to decide on what gets built and where have broken down. Those decisions are now made by bodies that do not, and cannot, think holistically about the tasks we have set them.

This is, quite literally, the core tenet of Collison's piece. That person is just ranting cause they don't like the origin of the argument.

Kermit.de.frog

I see the Ballymun bus connects scheme hasn't started yet.

Why?

Because the cabinet has to sign off on it.

When we are waiting for a cabinet meeting to sign off on a fricking bus lane…what are we doing here?

The system is broken.