Soon, no one will be able to cry halt

DICK Roche’s plan for a special division of An Bord Pleanála to speed up approvals for major infrastructure is an unwarranted attack on the legitimate rights of people to oppose large projects.

If Mr Roche gets his way, big business will win and the little man will lose out. That is because it is private business that will be building, and in most cases operating, the infrastructure through PPPs (public-private partnerships).

Should Mr Roche get his way and this bill becomes law, the scope for people to lodge objections to infrastructure dumping will be considerably reduced.

Contractors have spent years in this country running rings about the Government and its public servants but all we ever hear about are concerned citizens being at fault for the slow delivery of infrastructure. Instead of blaming the tree huggers and the crusties, Mr Roche needs to seek out the real culprits.

As for the rest of us, it is high time we woke up to real intent of this legislation - it is about making it impossible to object when the Government and big business want to dump unwanted infrastructure on vulnerable communities.

Neil Dempsey

Marsh Road

The Burrow

Portrane

Co Dublin