Critical Infrastructure Bill 2026: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-20
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Victor Boyhan (IND), Agricultural Panel

I welcome the Minister to the Seanad and thank him for his engagement and opening statement in relation to this Critical Infrastructure Bill. We have to shy away from thinking parochially here. We have to think of the bigger picture. This is about the economy, sustainability and our future. It is about putting critical infrastructure in place for housing, for jobs and employment, for the development of agriculture, for innovation, for the pharmaceutical industry and for all of the other exciting things that await us and our people, who are highly educated and ambitious to stay here, to work here and to contribute to our economy.
I will refer to two or three points from the Minister's opening statement. As he has said, there are ten sections to this Bill. It is relatively easy to read. The Minister statement reads:
Section 2 notes that nothing in this Bill will affect existing or future obligations of the State under European law or existing or future entitlements of the State or any person under European law. This is included to demonstrate that this Bill will not interfere in any way with our EU commitments, whether these are on our climate change targets or environmental protection more broadly.
I welcome that. That is the sort of clarity we need when we are talking about infrastructure. It is the sort of clarity we need if we want to allay the fears of potential objectors who have had genuine concerns about efforts to build infrastructure projects in the past. The Minister's note also says:
Section 3 of the Bill deals with how projects or programmes will be designated as critical infrastructure. In summary, the Minister for Public Expenditure will make a recommendation to Government
That is also important because people need to know what the projects are. The Minister does not want politicians standing up in Dáil Éireann every day to tell him what they want.
We are legislators by the way. Many people do not quite get the story here. We are the weakest local government in Ireland, partly because we do not have movement by national legislators and the Government to empower local government to make decisions and to communicate on local issues. I welcome this Bill. It is an important body of work where the foundation, if laid and communicated correctly, will aid, abet and assist the progression of our economy and help us all to realise the potential we are ambitious for in our country. That is very important. I wanted to make those two points to the Minister.
When I think about it, I am someone who has come from over 20 years in local government. I know the importance of public engagement and supporting local concerns, but I also take responsibility. We are leaders in Irish society and on policy, and we must be responsible in how we lead. However, the core principles of fair engagement and public consultation are worth pointing out because that is where much of the problems have happened in the past. I hope we can learn from them.
Fair engagement for planning and critical infrastructure is important. I hope we will see sustainable energy in wind and wave. There is also water, gas, electricity, housing, water waste - waste treatment and waste and water networks are very important for critical infrastructure - roads, transport and rail. We have huge potential for rail, including the western rail corridor, and how we embrace telecoms, the ambition around it and rolling it out, and major healthcare. Today is not the day to talk about mistakes in major infrastructural and capital projects for healthcare, but we have a lot to learn from mistakes in the past. We have major challenges around pieces of infrastructure in agriculture, specifically related to the food enterprise. I think of Guinness's initiative down in Kildare and the challenges around that. Compromises were reached, but we could have potentially seen years in delay there. However, it was resolved because there was communication, which is very important.
Best practice emphasises early, honest dialogue with communities and citizens who feel threatened in any way by major projects. We need clear mitigation in planning and structured, open transparency, rather than treating community consultation as a mere regulatory hurdle to be overcome at any cost. Again, we have to learn from that. We need to engage early, not after design. We need to consult communities during policy and design phases well before a formal planning application is made to ensure local knowledge and inputs are there, particularly from our local councillors and local government in this area, but also community activists, NGOs and others that have a view and a knowledge on the ground of what could potentially be a threat to their community or environment. This would also reduce negative impacts.
It is important we make information accessible. The Minister talks a lot about transparency and I commend him on his work in that area. Planners and engineers should be asked, and it should be provided in this legislation that it be obligatory, to translate complex engineering and environmental data into clear, non-technical language to bring clarity to the proposed projects coming through this system. It is important we have outreach, inform our communities, and that we give everybody in our community a strong, independent and equal opportunity to shape critical infrastructural projects and processes. We need to inform, consult, involve and collaborate.
At the heart of any meaningful public engagement, there has to be genuine respect for all stakeholders. We must empower all of them and foster community trust. Trust has simply broken down in many cases. It was those who shouted the loudest, who had more money and who had more access to big Government who got their way too many times. We see all around this country bad planning decisions, and bad decisions generally, that were made and not sustained because the right processes and screenings were not in place, but that is behind us. We are going forward. I like the Minister's legislation because it is positive and is setting out a framework.
What is more important than anything, and I did not hear the Minister say too much about it here today, which is not to say he is not giving it that attention because I know he is, is that governance and oversight of public money are critical in any project. The modernisation of public financial reporting and accounting is central to reforms under way by the Minister's Department of public expenditure, national development plan delivery and reform. Recent public statements by the Minister have left me in no doubt as to his political determination to seek value for money for national infrastructural projects. Addressing capital costs, overruns and public accountability are critical to public confidence. We must get that message across as part of the sell of this important legislation. I very much welcome the Minister's assiduous attention to financial oversight, control and governance in this space. I wish him well.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-20/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:58+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-20