Legislative Process
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-16
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Darragh O'Brien (FF), Dublin Fingal East

The Critical Infrastructure Bill is a central pillar of the Government’s Accelerating Infrastructure Report and Action Plan and represents a significant step forward in strengthening delivery across all key sectors, including energy, which I will turn to in a moment. Accelerated delivery of infrastructure does not disapply our climate commitments or our targets at national level, but recognises an urgent need for the completion of major infrastructure projects in the State. Many new infrastructure projects, including critical electricity infrastructure and public transport projects, are themselves absolutely essential to supporting climate, environment and other social and economic objectives.
The Bill provides for the disapplication of section 15 of the amended Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015, which the Deputy referred to, in very limited circumstances for designated critical infrastructure. Climate impact will still be one of the influencing factors when decisions are made and will continue to be accounted for through decision-making processes, particularly through the planning system where climate impact is already woven into the policy hierarchy, as confirmed recently by the Supreme Court in the Coolglass case.
I assure the Deputy that climate impact and considerations will remain absolutely central to the ambition of this Government, though they must be balanced against other critical factors like housing shortages and energy security particularly, and when it comes to these projects of national importance. I assure the Deputy that I will continue to work across government to ensure climate impacts of projects are well-evidenced and incorporated into proposals at the appropriate time.

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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