I have been researching and critically analysing Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael's infrastructure policy for almost 20 years. In fact, I did my PhD on it, specifically on infrastructure and how it was developed during the Celtic tiger period. Back then, 20 years ago, the key policy of Fianna Fáil was to have public-private partnerships deliver infrastructure through new ways which were, essentially, handing our public infrastructure over to big global infrastructure providers that saw infrastructure as a commodity through those public-private partnerships in wastewater, social housing and transport. It utterly failed and we then had a decade of austerity, during which the Government failed again and cut back capital projects. In this new Bill there is no step change away from this outsourcing and the overreliance on the private model of delivery of infrastructure. Why are we in the situation we are with the children's hospital? Why are we in the situation we are with the lack of infrastructure? It is in large part because the State has handed over the delivery of infrastructure to the private sector. We have local authorities and we can go through our State agencies. The Bill is incredible to me, and in reading through it and the explanatory memorandum I wonder whether the Minister is having a laugh. He is saying that what this is about is getting public bodies to prioritise critical infrastructure, and the other part is about getting public bodies to co-operate and co-ordinate with each other. For crying out loud, Fine Gael has been in government for 15 years, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been in government together for six years, and this is what the Minister has, a Bill to get public bodies to prioritise critical infrastructure. Why are they not doing that already? Why does the Government not have public bodies doing this? I believe this is a smokescreen. It is a fig leaf to put across the idea that it is doing something. It is not going to fundamentally change how infrastructure is delivered in this country. It is going to be the same model of reliance on the private sector, the same model of reliance on outsourcing and the same chronic underfunding of infrastructure. A message came from my constituency office today about creches, with regard to parents trying to find creches in the constituency but not being able to do so. Where is the increase in funding for crèches in this? The Luas to Finglas is a transport project in my constituency. It is delayed and not due to be delivered by 2030. This is not because of a lack of prioritisation by public bodies; it is because of a lack of funding allocated to the project. The Minister should be honest. This is not a step change in how we are going to see critical infrastructure delivered in this country. As I said, to a certain extent the Bill appears to be a smokescreen to allow the Government to pretend it is doing something. Nothing has fundamentally changed, however. If we want to deliver critical infrastructure, particularly housing, rapidly, why do we not set up a State construction company with the capacity to directly deliver, rather than relying year after year on a private sector that is failing to deliver, that is not being prioritised and that is taking the State for a ride in terms of value for money?

Sentiment score: -0.03