We have a chronic lack of infrastructure in our country. The basics, such as housing, transport, school places, hospitals, grid capacity and an effective high-quality water supply, are all completely lacking in the second richest country in all of Europe. Where does the money go? It is the people's money, the tax that people pay for their work, the solidarity contributions they make to their fellow citizens in the running of the State. A graphic made by Sinéad O'Sullivan went viral over the weekend. It showed Ireland's massive wealth relative to our lack of delivery and infrastructure at a European level. Unfortunately, we are in a league of our own. We are the red dot on the chart, out on our own and well below both poorer and wealthier countries. Ireland is by far one of the richest countries in the EU, yet our infrastructure delivery is worse than that of Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary, all of which are poorer on the GNI metric. All we see is the Government clapping itself on the back about fiscal prudence and running a budgetary surplus, year on year. People keep hearing from the Government benches that we are a rich country, but no one feels it. They see a country crippled by a housing crisis exacerbated by a basic lack of infrastructure. That is why I welcome measures that will speed up delivery, but experience tells me I should be very doubtful about it. The record of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael on critical infrastructure delivery is categorised by inaction, delays and bad value for people's money. The shining example is the children's hospital, which has been delayed 18 times and counting. The DART+ West project will run to Kilcock in my constituency, and not to Maynooth, as I like to remind people. I am on the infrastructural committee. I wanted pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill. We were prepared to meet often and to meet over the holidays to do it quickly. As the chair of the committee, an Teachta Fleming, said, we have had the experts in. They tell us that it is not because of judicial reviews or environmental reasons that we are not getting infrastructure. It is the result of the Government's lack of action.

Sentiment score: -0.04