Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegates to the meeting.

I will be brief in my contribution. I refer to references in the presentation to regional disparities. I agree with my colleagues that parts of Dublin have not seen the so-called growth and development in the region. Many of those areas were left behind during the boom times. They are still being left behind and another cycle begins.

The delegates are meeting their European counterparts in committees. Is there any sense that they understand the sacrifices and the difficulties that people have endured in Ireland and in countries like Ireland? There does not seem to be this understanding at other levels. People think that we have done well, that we are now in recovery mode and the country is back on track. There is no sense of the sacrifices that have been made and the sacrifices that are still being made. Do the delegates regard their role as complementing the Minister or do they regard their role as being separate with a separate voice and pair of eyes at local and regional level? I am trying to tease that out for people who are listening at home. The jargon we use in this meeting is NUTS III classification but people are scratching their heads wondering what is NUTS III. The language we use, such as reference to LEOs, is completely different from the language used by ordinary people.

I mentioned two-tier development or recovery when speaking to the Minister. I spoke about job creation. Do people in Europe understand that many of the new jobs created are low-income jobs? Is there any sense or understanding that Ireland has proportionately the highest number of people in low-income jobs in Europe?

We had a spatial strategy during the boom times. What happened to it? That development did not happen. The Minister is now talking about developing a new spatial strategy. That is certainly the way to go. The local authorities are going to oversee it. This problem developed when all sorts of structures were in place. The previous spatial strategy was led by the Government, but it did not happen in many regions. I could refer to many of the places where the councillors are from, including counties Leitrim and Limerick. There were weaknesses within the strategy. Are the councillors confident that this will work at local level? In my experience, the Government does not really listen to local authority members. I am worried that if this is the driver for change, if this is how the spatial strategy is going to be rolled out, at some stage the Minister will say he does not necessarily agree with it and it will be pushed to one side.