Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)

I am a TD for the Meath East constituency. As long as I have been there, which is my whole life, a permanent feature has been Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in government here and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in government in Meath County Council. We have seen nothing but failure in terms of forward planning for critical infrastructure. For as long as I was a county councillor, and since I have been in the Dáil, the issue of retrospectively investing in communities, critical infrastructure, water, wastewater, energy, playgrounds, green space, school places, GP places, bus services and the whole lot has seen an absolute failure to forward plan and deliver. In water infrastructure it is particularly bad. This time last year, there were major issues in Ashbourne and Ratoath.

I welcome that there has been progress with regard to them but it just moves the problem on to somewhere else. We have regular outages now in Duleek. Today, we have water restrictions in Kells because there has been chronic underinvestment in water infrastructure for decades. The common denominator is Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and an absolute failure to plan and deliver.

Oireachtas Members met yesterday with members of the executive of Meath County Council who specifically stated that issues with investment in water infrastructure were impacting on the development the economic corridor they would like to see at Dunboyne extending through Dunshaughlin to Navan. This has to change but I have absolutely no confidence it will change until we change Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

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