Barriers to Environmental Policy Implementation: Stakeholder perceptions in the context of Ireland

Overview

Despite Ireland’s national environmental commitments, progress on delivery remains uneven. Based on interviews with 34 senior stakeholders in Irish government, NGOs, academia, and industry, insufficient environmental policy implementation comes down to five interconnected barriers spanning all environmental problems:

1. Capacity constraints – Insufficient staffing and specialist skills to meet expanding policy targets
2. Policy incoherence – Fragmented departmental responsibilities and siloed decision-making.
3. Financial barriers – Restrictive funding rules and chronic under-resourcing.
4. Competing political priorities – Short-term cycles and reluctance to make politically difficult choices.
5. Planning delays – Lengthy, complex, and contested approval processes.

These barriers are systemic rather than sectoral, interacting with each other and creating bottlenecks that slow or stall environmental policy implementation.

Strategies to overcome barriers to environmental policy implementation

• Build organisational capacity through actions such as hiring or redeploying staff, targeted training, or better allocation of existing resources to accelerate policy implementation. An audit of the current number and type of central and local government and agency vacancies affecting environment-related policy implementation would enable an assessment of the amount and timing of investment required to fill these vacancies.
• Enhance cross-departmental coordination and stakeholder engagement through actions such as better alignment of related policy areas such as climate change, biodiversity and water policy for more coherent policy development and implementation; minimising or avoiding duplication of actions; and reconciling areas of conflicting sectoral interests.
• Strengthen financial mechanisms through actions such as more strategic allocation of funds, use of fiscal incentives (e.g., taxes and subsidies), and prioritising investment to maximise co-benefits across policy areas. Improved delivery on EU environmental legislation commitments could further reduce the risk of infringement proceedings for non-compliance, thus avoiding financial penalties. This, in turn, could release additional funding to support policy implementation.
• Align political priorities through actions such as fostering long-term commitment, aligning incentives, and using strategic communications to reduce politicisation of environmental issues. Encouraging high-level political support and embedding environmental objectives into broader government work programmes could safeguard progress and facilitate consistent implementation across sectors.
• Streamline planning processes through actions such as implementing statutory timelines for decision-making, enhancing capacity support within local authorities, and improving transparency and public participation in planning processes. Streamlining planning also reduces the amplification of other barriers, particularly capacity and coherence challenges.

By directly linking strategies and policy recommendations to the five barriers identified in this research, interventions can be both targeted and systemic, addressing the most significant constraints while producing multiple positive outcomes across environmental policy implementation. Actions addressing one barrier can produce positive effects across others, enhancing the overall effectiveness of environmental policy implementation.

Why It Matters

Ireland is a “high-commitment, high-challenge” case, typical of many EU Member States with ambitious environmental legislation but systemic implementation hurdles. By mapping the interconnections between barriers, this study provides a framework for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers seeking to strengthen environmental governance and close the gap between policy ambition and on-the-ground results.