The Government's plans are an admission of a profound failure on the part of successive Governments that consistently failed to co-ordinate and deliver. In County Meath, the Government's legacy is one of broken promises. We have unaffordable housing without adequate water and wastewater infrastructure in Dunboyne, Duleek, Kells and elsewhere. Communities in Ashbourne, Ratoath, Kells and elsewhere are without working public transport. We have a county waiting decades for Navan rail and families priced off an electricity grid prioritised for data centres. We have estates built without the playgrounds, parks or community centres that make a house a home. The Government's proposed solution to this self-made crisis is to restrict the public's right to planning justice and silence the very communities it has failed. This is not reform; it is an attempt to avoid accountability. The co-ordination and delivery reform in this plan is meaningless unless it legally binds the delivery of pipes, rail and community facilities to the completion of new homes. It requires a date-certain funded commitment for Navan rail. Without that, it is just more empty words. We will oppose any erosion of democratic rights. Real acceleration requires competence as opposed to the curtailment of community voices. The Minister should show us the binding sequenced plans then we might believe him.

Sentiment score: -0.15