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

That is disappointing. Judicial reviews are being blamed for an awful lot of delays when there is poor planning, poor oversight and poor resourcing of Departments. That has to be recognised. It is recognised. The number of judicial reviews arises from poor planning. How can the Minister explain issues with other projects deemed to be critical infrastructure? What about the children's hospital? I know we keep using it as an example but public procurement is a big issue here. We have to be honest and have an honest conversation. It cannot be one or the other. It does not have to be like that. We all agree that we have to reduce emissions. We have signed up to the Paris Agreement. We have a climate Act for a reason. This undermines that Act. Unfortunately, we cannot support this. We cannot be labelled as anti-infrastructure because we are not. We are not anti-development but we are against pitting one essential necessity for our country against another. That is very short-sighted and I wish the Minister would reconsider accepting some of our amendments and having a longer debate. This is being rushed through. It is not being given due consideration. We should be honest about the public procurement issues we have in the country.

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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