Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Tomorrow the Government will guillotine through the Planning and Development Bill even though it is one of the most important Bills this Dáil will consider because planning will determine our capacity to resolve the housing crisis, the energy crisis and, indeed, transport infrastructure. Ironically, under our planning laws, if a council or local authority made a decision the way the Dáil will make its decisions on the Planning and Development Bill, the decision would be quashed. We have real concerns about the Bill concentrating power in the hands of the Minister. We know Seanad amendments will now introduce a class of strategic infrastructure to be exempt from normal protocols. These strategic infrastructure projects include liquified natural gas, LNG - a deeply harmful fossil fuel. As Sinéad Mercier and Amy Strecker pointed out in The Irish Times yesterday, LNG infrastructure can hardly be considered strategic in a climate crisis. Although we have such a short time for debate tomorrow, will the Government at least enable all the LNG amendments to be debated so that we will have the opportunity to consider them in this House?

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