Critical Infrastructure Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-16
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Nessa Cosgrove (LAB), Labour Panel

I move amendment No. 6:
In page 7, to delete lines 8 to 10.
The Labour Party really wants to see infrastructure improved. We recognise there has been a serious deficit in infrastructure and infrastructure projects in this country but we do not think this Bill addresses the root causes of that, which include poor planning, weak oversight and lack of staffing in relevant Departments. Overall, we cannot support the Bill. Not only do we believe it grants too much power to the Minister, and we are not simply talking about the present Minister himself but future Ministers as well, but we think it blurs the lines between the responsibilities of independent bodies which are being taken over by the Minister. Most importantly, we cannot vote for section 7. It is being rushed through. The whole Critical Infrastructure Bill is undermining the long, hard work that went into the climate action Act. I live in the north west where we face the real threat of building of fossil fuel infrastructure. If this Bill goes through, it will disregard any negative climate impact that will have.
It will also disregard any climate benefits like prioritising rail infrastructure over road infrastructure, for example. The Minister did not rule out designating fossil fuel infrastructure as part of critical infrastructure. We all support the premise that something needs to change but not enough thought has been put into this. It is just an easy way out rather than looking, for example, at things like the overspend in the children's hospital. That is weak oversight and this Bill is not going to change that. My party colleague, Deputy Ahern, has suggested that there may be real constitutional issues with this and we could see this Bill challenged. The Supreme Court has ruled previously that legislation cannot provide that a government can automatically designate to disapply a core statutory duty without clear criteria, thresholds or mandatory considerations. This Bill, and particularly section 7, is going to gut our climate protections and that may prove to be unconstitutional.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:03+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-16