The Green Party has said the Critical Infrastructure Bill will ‘undermine climate action’ in Ireland. 

The Critical Infrastructure Bill would give the Government the power to designate certain projects as vital to the economy in order to “ensure effective and efficient delivery of a project or programme”. 

The aim is to speed up infrastructure projects that might otherwise spend many years being built. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman said the bill is “not going to shorten the processes at all”. 

“What the Critical Infrastructure Bill is going to do is if a piece, a plan is designated as critical infrastructure, that climate impact assessment won't take place anymore,” he said. 

“So, some big projects that definitely will have a climate impact - and I'm thinking [about] adding liquefied natural gas to our energy network or building new data centres - they won't have their climate impact considered when they get planning permission. 

“So, the Government is basically repealing the Climate Action Act by the back door.” 

A data centre. Picture by: Dmitriy Shironosov / Alamy Stock Photo.

The Dublin West TD argued that the legislation will see the Government “undermining climate action in our country”. 

“Darragh O'Brien has already given up on achieving our 2030 targets,” he said. 

“And this is another example of the Government chipping away at the individual policies, the individual laws that were put in place to actually help us reach those targets.” 

The Department of Transport has been contacted for comment.

Main image: Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman arriving for Cabinet at Dublin Castle. Image: Sam Boal/RollingNews