The Green Party’s candidate for the Galway West by-election says the government’s Critical Infrastructure Bill reduces citizens’ rights to hold state bodies to account.
Niall Murphy says he supports legal reforms to cut through red tape holding up major projects, but he is concerned that the planned legislation, due to become law in July, will make public bodies immune to legal challenges on environmental grounds.
Publishing the proposed legislation earlier this month, Minister for Public Expenditure, Jack Chambers, told reporters it would end the “weaponisation of the Climate Act”, and prevent people from challenging how a public body has made environmental assessments on everything from greenways through private land, to sewage plants and motorways.
Opposition spokespersons from the Greens, Labour and Sinn Féin have criticised the new bill, because it does not include housing and healthcare infrastructure, and because it is being rushed without proper scrutiny, they claim.
“The Government is abandoning climate action,” says Murphy. “The bill overrides the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015, and with it: our hope of avoiding massive fines and devastating climate change. This bill shows the Government is describing the climate emergency as an existential crisis, and then ignoring the possible solutions for short-term political gain.”
Murphy says the new Infrastructure Bill is being touted by government supporters as protecting the Galway City Ring Road from any climate-based legal actions, but that there appears to be nothing in the proposed legislation allowing it to be retrospective, or influence projects currently underway, such as the new road, which received planning permission two weeks ago.
The current deadline to lodge a judicial review of the 18km ring road, from Coolagh to near Furbo, including a new road bridge over the Corrib, is early June. Murphy says he has no intention of seeking a review.
“A similar approach will be taken to many other projects, like Shannon LNG [Liquified Natural Gas], which will put our climate targets out of reach, and tie us to expensive fossil fuel imports for years” says Murphy.
He said other major projects for Galway, such as offshore wind farms, or light rail for the city, are unlikely to be challenged on climate grounds, but that this new legislation removes that legal privilege.
“These are the projects which need to be treated as ‘critical infrastructure’. I fear that the government will use the Critical Infrastructure Bill to bypass our climate obligations as a political expedience, instead of using it to fast-track the climate-friendly projects that will benefit us in the long term.”
The former city councillor says Galway is in dire need of transport solutions which do not add to the country’s carbon costs. He supports double-tracking the railway from Galway to Athenry, and building a commuter station in Renmore. He wants bus lanes to run the length of the Western Distributor Road, and the Dangan to Moycullen leg of the Connemara Greenway to be prioritised so N59 commuters have an e-bike option.
“Galway is being left behind in terms of high-capacity transport, which is the real solution to congestion. For example, Gluas – Galway light rail – and expanded bus lanes… are currently stalled, or not expected until 2028.
“This week the figures for the Luas in Dublin were announced for 2025 with more than 55 million journeys taken by the public across Dublin city. And yet Gluas has still only moved forward on paper, with a viability study completed in 2024.”
