I will make some general points on infrastructure but I want to say at the outset that the Government decision on pausing DART+ South West, which is not in my constituency and is not an issue for most people in my constituency, is incredibly regressive. The project should be going ahead straight away. It is ready to go in terms of planning. The only delay has been caused by the Government. It is in an area where there has been a huge amount of housing development over the last few years and there is a lot more development to come. DART+ South West is critically needed. I appeal to the Government, as the only entity holding this project up, to go ahead with it. There could not be a more important project to serve that part of south-west Dublin, Kildare and adjoining areas. It is needed. Overall, our infrastructure is in a critical situation. Our capital stock is about 30% behind comparable European countries due to decades of under-investment in infrastructure. At the same time, this Government has never had so many resources at its disposal. We recently had the largest budget ever passed. There is a real onus to close that infrastructure gap as quickly as possible. This is affecting people’s quality of life, their health and well-being and they time they have with their families. In addition, it is having huge implications for our economic development. We cannot take for granted continued economic progress if there is continued lack of under-investment in critical infrastructure. That really does need to be addressed. We are in an era where many pensioners are afraid to turn on their heating, yet in 2024, for example, €450 million of renewable wind energy was wasted because of under-investment in our grid and our grid’s inability to take that energy due to capacity. That is an utter waste and an utter failure by previous governments to take that issue seriously. Caithfidh muid gníomhú go práinneach. Ní foláir don Rialtas éisteacht agus gníomhú. Teastaíonn ón phobal rathúlacht. Tá sé chomh simplí sin. Tá tráth an ghnímh tagtha. I welcome today’s announcement on not using external consultants and getting expertise within the State. That will be cost-efficient and will lead to increases in our capacity to deliver infrastructure. It is a welcome move and makes sense but we need more of that thinking to drive on delivery of the infrastructure we so badly need.

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