Legislative Process
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-16
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Conor Sheehan (LAB), Limerick City

First, I will go back to what I said on Second Stage. I am disappointed that we could not do even some limited, quick pre-legislative scrutiny on this Bill. I think we could have teased through some of these things.
I want to go back to a point the Minister made there. He was talking about building the low-carbon economy but in his concluding remarks on Second Stage he referenced, for example, the ring road in Galway which, in my view - and I know there are many views on it - is hardly the best example of climate-sustainable development. In particular, could the removal of section 15 stop a piece of critical infrastructure from being prioritised because it could have, for example, positive climate benefits? I am talking about a new train line and potentially a new Luas line. Could that apply to data centres under the Minister's definition of "critical infrastructure"?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-16