Every week we come into this Chamber and we discuss infrastructure. It might always be the title of the debate but Ireland's infrastructural deficit lies behind so many of the problems we discus every day. Whether we are talking about flooding, commuter chaos or housing, what is really under discussion is the consistent failure of the Government to build and sustain the infrastructure that Ireland needs. The International Monetary Fund, IMF, has said that we are lagging 32% behind our peers when it comes to infrastructure. This is the key reason Ireland, a rich country, can feel poor for too many people. The transport links, housing, hospitals and utilities befitting a rich country are just not there. Over the past decade, this Government has managed to waste a boom. While it was sitting our record tax receipts, it allowed our infrastructure gap to widen and widen. The plan announced before Christmas was at least an effort to take the issue seriously. It was a roll of the dice by the Government to finally tackle the generational problems that it, to a large part, has created for itself. There are certainly some welcome measures within the plan but these are things that any government worth its salt should have already been doing, so, in many respects, this plan amounts to an admission of failure. The streamlining of approvals for critical infrastructure projects is very welcome, so is the greater co-ordination to be demanded across the public service on infrastructure delivery. A duty for State bodies to co-operate in making land available and accessible for critical infrastructure, something that would seem so blindingly obvious to anyone else and should already be happening, is long overdue and we really do welcome that. The commitment to clear timelines is positive and the Government should further commit to non-negotiable delivery dates for the departmental implementation plans described in this document. That would be an indication of confidence from the Government in its own plan. Accountability will be key to the success of this report and we welcome the clear lines of responsibility for Ministers and senior civil servants in the document. The Labour Party and the public will be holding the Minister's own performance against this plan to account. I do, however, have concerns about the Government's over-zealous focus on judicial reviews, JRs. Legal reforms may be a necessary part of a comprehensive process like this but the Government seems to view limits to judicial reviews as a panacea, which will solve all of our problems. It will not. We should be clear that there is no silver bullet here. The Government must tread very carefully. Access to effective justice underpins our whole democracy. Judicial reviews should not be treated as a bogey man as they have been by this Government. The Law Society noted recently that the number of JRs decreased by 25% in 2025, so we must question the evidential basis for the Government's approach here. Not only does the Government's attitude risk undermining effective access to justice and crucial environmental laws, it could also put the whole mission at risk by taking its eye off the ball. What we need is investment and resourcing of our planning bodies and courts as this is where the real delays and backlogs lie. It is little more than performative to attack those who simply seek to ensure that our laws are being complied with. We should also be honest that these judicial reforms will likely themselves be subject to legal challenge, including in the European courts. All of us in Ireland need this plan to work. The Government needs this plan to work too, and we will be holding Ministers to account in the years to come to make sure the tide finally turns on our delivery of crucial infrastructure.

Sentiment score: 0.13