Critical Infrastructure Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-20 ============================================================ Jack Chambers (FF), Dublin West -----members of the legal profession and NGOs matters which they, in turn, bring to the courts for decision. We have priorities that we have set out in the national development plan. We want to see these delivered for the communities that we all represent. Of course, all planning permissions and permits will be subject to the processes that are set. Let us not give another avenue to people to take more judicial reviews and delay matters further. To be absolutely clear, judicial reviews are an important tool. They ensure that the decisions made by public bodies when they are carrying out their functions are transparent, fair and accountable and adhere to the principles of legality, procedural propriety and rationality. However, where we can avoid creating unnecessary or duplicate triggers for litigation in the project development process, we should intervene. The accelerating infrastructure task force report set out the need to rapidly respond to legal precedent. We have a Supreme Court judgment interpreting section 15 that is problematic. We have to confront that in how we legislate, how we legislatively interpret section 15 and how this will affect the future infrastructure needs of our country. We are doing the right thing in disapplying section 15 in that context. Climate and environmental assessments will still need to be carried out as part of the project development process. We are just closing off the opportunity for judicial reviews in certain instances by those who just want to delay projects. I have to strike a balance between the base of legislation and the need to deliver and get things done. I welcome the wide request for urgency in this House on driving delivery. We are at a critical juncture. We face an infrastructure shortfall. Without decisive reform, the gap in this regard will only widen. The report and action plan published last December provide us with the blueprint for unblocking the barriers to delivery. The actions set out in the plan have been designed in consultation with the task force, which continues to provide strategic guidance and expert input. The task force worked with my officials to identify the barriers to infrastructure and the solutions needed to overcome them. We carried out extensive consultation last year. The Bill is a key action set out in the plan. Its purpose is to remove some of the barriers identified during the consultation process. It is a central pillar of the Government's broader infrastructure acceleration agenda, fast-tracking strategically important projects deemed essential to the wider social and economic development of the State. In that context, I say to people that we need to have legal reform and rebalancing of legislation and that blaming resourcing, on the one hand, and ignoring the evidence base, on the other, is not good legislative input. We have to be honest about the need to engage in making reforms in the context of the existing challenges and constraints we face. Too often, the simplistic response in these Houses and elsewhere is to blame resource or staffing allocation when, in fact, underpinning systems need reform or legislation requires change. That is what we are doing here. The approach taken in the Bill has been shaped by our wider engagement across the economy. Providing clarity in respect of what is a priority and by requiring and empowering public bodies to expedite their decision-making, we will achieve significantly quicker progress on the identified projects. We have not decided what the projects will be, but they are self-evident in the context of what EirGrid, the ESB and Irish Water are trying to do. Many of them are critical projects which, in some instances, are holding back the delivery housing supply and hampering wider economic and industrial development. Everyone in this House knows that we need more housing. We also need more transport infrastructure. We need more renewable energy meet our climate targets. Without adequate water and electricity supplies, our ability to build enough homes for our population will be restricted. An inability to provide secure, affordable and decarbonised energy supplies has an impact when it comes to energy poverty, competitiveness, jobs and our ability to deliver on climate targets. Inadequate transport infrastructure means more congestion on our roads, higher bills and more time spent in cars by so many commuters. The focus on transport, energy and water projects and programmes outlined in the Bill will provide us with a launch pad from which to proceed in order to address all of the country's other infrastructure needs. In the years to come, I have no doubt that this legislation will be seen as a singular intervention made to address our infrastructure deficit by providing the legal framework for unlocking the acceleration of delivery of the projects and programmes that are critical for our economic and social prosperity. I am thankful for and value all of the contributions which were made and which I take seriously. We will have better engagement on Committee and Report Stages in the coming weeks. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. 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