Staffing Shortage Identified as Major Roadblock to Irish Sustainability Goals

A new study from University College Dublin (UCD) has revealed that a critical lack of staff and specialised skills is the single biggest barrier preventing Irish organisations from meeting ambitious national environmental targets. The research, which involved extensive interviews with key stakeholders, indicates that while policy ambition is high, the public sector’s capacity to implement these goals has not kept pace. This staffing crisis spans government departments, local authorities, and key industries, threatening progress in vital areas such as climate action, renewable energy, and water quality.

The study, conducted by UCD’s Environmental Policy Programme, gathered insights from representatives across government, state agencies, non-governmental organisations, academia, media, and industry. A consistent theme emerged: the growing workload associated with new environmental commitments is not being matched with corresponding human resources. Local authorities were identified as being under particular strain, struggling to deliver extensive policy objectives with limited teams. As one interviewee stated plainly, “We need to double the number of civil servants working on climate.”

A Crisis of Capacity, Not Ambition

Dr Cara Augustenborg, who led the research, summarised the core finding by stating that Ireland’s primary environmental challenge is now one of delivery rather than intent.
“Our research shows that Ireland’s biggest environmental challenge right now isn’t a lack of ambition, it’s a lack of capacity to deliver,” she said.

Stakeholders described a system in which policy targets continue to expand, while the specialised staff required to translate them into action have not been recruited or trained at the necessary scale.

The staffing shortages are particularly severe in sectors central to Ireland’s green transition. The report highlighted gaps in renewable energy, building retrofitting, sustainable transport, water services, and agriculture. In addition, related skill shortages in essential trades such as construction, plumbing, and electrical work are compounding the problem, creating bottlenecks that slow down public projects.

Beyond Staffing: Additional Systemic Barriers

While staffing shortages were identified as the most critical issue, the study also highlighted several other systemic obstacles impeding environmental progress, including:

• Siloed structures within government departments that hinder coordinated action

• Unclear distribution of responsibilities across agencies and levels of government

• Persistent funding constraints limiting project support

• Competing political priorities that sideline long-term environmental goals

• Delays in planning processes that stall critical infrastructure and development projects

Pathways to a Solution

The research team outlined clear and practical recommendations to address the capacity crisis. They urged that targeted efforts to recruit or redeploy staff, alongside specialised training programmes and improved resource allocation, be treated as an urgent national priority. As a foundational step, the report called for a comprehensive audit of existing vacancies across the public sector and key industries.

Such an audit would quantify the level of financial investment required to close staffing gaps and align institutional capacity with Ireland’s environmental ambitions.

The report concludes that without a rapid and sustained expansion of the skilled workforce, Ireland’s sustainability goals risk remaining aspirations on paper rather than achievements in practice. Closing this implementation gap is now identified as the fundamental prerequisite for meaningful environmental progress.