THE DUBLIN METROLINK and the Galway City ring road are among nine infrastructure projects that will be expedited using new legislation, public expenditure minister Jack Chambers announced today. 

The nine projects the minister announced would be fast-tracked using the new legislation fall into three categories: water, energy and transport.

The transport projects are the MetroLink in Dublin, the Cork Area Commuter Rail Programme and the Galway City Ring Road.

The water infrastructure projects are the Water Supply Project for the Eastern and Midlands Region, the Greater Dublin Drainage Project and the Limerick (Bunlicky) Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade and Bioresource Centre.

The energy projects are the North South 400 kV Interconnector, the Moneypoint 400 kV Series Capacitor Project and the Letterkenny 110 kV Redevelopment Project.

Announcing the designation of the projects under the Critical Infrastructure Act, Chambers said they would now move to the “top of the queue” for the various state bodies that play a role in approving and executing them. 

“Government cannot dictate the decisions that must be made,” he said.

“We are simply saying that public bodies are now obliged to fast-track decisions and to work together to ensure that parallel processing of decisions can be achieved where it’s possible to do so.

“All of this is with the goal of getting shovels in the ground on the infrastructure projects that can make a real difference nationally and to deliver meaningful benefits to people’s everyday lives and living standards.”

He also said the government plans to designate projects in this manner every two to three months.

“I don’t plan on bringing a list every week because I want my team and my department, with other government departments, to be clear on the priorities and also to drive better oversight of different bodies and ensuring their resources are matching the designations,” he said.

“We’re not just announcing long lists every couple of weeks because we understand the need to have priorities and to ensure that that resource allocation works.”

Chambers also said that environmental NGOs have been “weaponising” climate legislation to halt infrastructure projects, specifically the Galway ring road. 

His comments have been met with fierce criticism from environmentalists, who accused him of “scapegoating” them and deflecting attention away from the government’s own shortcomings on major projects like the National Children’s Hospital.