I am thankful for the opportunity to speak on this important issue. There is a certain degree of scepticism in my attitude to the Government's new-found interest in critical infrastructure. I have been a Deputy for a decade. I am one of a number of people on this side of the House who have been talking about lack of investment, lack of reform and lack of ambition regarding critical infrastructure and delivery of key projects involving housing, renewable energy and public transport. Despite the fact we have many times proposed changes that are required, only recently has the Government started to join the conversation. I will name some of those. Unless the Government delivers these, its new-found interest in addressing infrastructure deficits caused by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments over the decades will only be words. Water is a case in point. Most people will name it during this debate. For two years, Uisce Éireann was looking for increased capital funding to improve waste and wastewater treatment; for two years, the Government delayed. Even still, despite the big announcements in the last budget, Uisce Éireann does not have clarity on what additional funding it will get from now until 2030 and for what pieces of critical infrastructure. Those are the facts. Worse than that, reasonable demands of the utility for parallel planning and consenting and for prioritisation of critical infrastructure in the planning system were ignored by Government during the passage of the controversial Planning and Development Act 2024. When the Opposition tabled amendments to give effect to those reasonable demands of Uisce Éireann and others, they were voted down by the Government. The electricity grid is the other one. I live in a constituency, Dublin Mid-West, where the Castlebaggot supply substation was recently built, primarily, if not exclusively, to service new housing and industry. It has all been swallowed up by data centres. The Government cannot say it wants to increase grid capacity for housing and employment when, at the same time, it lifts the cap and continues to prioritise data centres over critical infrastructure. Transport is the same. While there are nowhere near enough homes, particularly social and affordable homes, being built in my constituency, it still has significant increased residential development. However, a key piece of public infrastructure, the DART+ South West through Clonburris and Adamstown strategic development zones, has been delayed for five years because the Government is unwilling to fund it in accordance with the original commitment of the Minister in the previous Government. If we do not get those basics right and if we continue to strangle our local authorities and approved housing bodies with too little funding and too much red tape for the delivery of social and affordable homes, then the folks on the other side of the Chamber can talk all they want about tackling the deficits but things will not change. Crucially, we have to stop scapegoating others for the failures of Government to invest in and resource our planning system and courts to ensure good-quality planning decisions are made in a timely manner and that, on the infrequent occasions they are judicially reviewed, those JRs happen in a timely manner. The Government has starved our local authority planning sections of resources and failed to adequately staff the planning and environment court to deal with planning matters. Until those issues are dealt with, decisions will take too long. I will judge the Government by what it delivers, not by what it promises. On the basis of what it has not delivered to date, I will not hold my breath.

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