Dr. Brian Hughes:

I am also a retired lecturer from Dublin Institute of Technology. I welcome this opportunity to present my research evidence to the committee on the National Spatial Strategy 2002-2020 and its successor, the national planning framework, on the subject of what it takes to sustain a viable rural community.

I am not quite sure as to the extent to which I can specifically assist this committee. My areas of experience are primarily urban in nature but nevertheless I accept the kind invitation in good faith and because of the complementarity between urban and rural. My academic research colleague, Dr. Conor Skehan, is unable to be with me today as he is chairing a housing seminar in Cork. In sending his apologies, he has very kindly provided me with material which I am at liberty to use and it will assist and broaden this presentation. His input comprises sections 4 to 7, inclusive, of this submission and I therefore beg the committee's forbearance for the fact that will take somewhat longer to deliver than had originally been intended.

I am also grateful to my collaborating research colleagues in the Dublin Institute of Technology and in other research centres and indeed, also to the assistance afforded by the Central Statistics Office in the use and application of its census data. I will also refer to five appendices attached to this 15-page opening statement document, which run from pages 16 through to 78. Some of the historical appendix material, unavoidably, repeats the submission content.

What is urban agglomeration? Urban agglomeration was first identified in 1920 by Alfred Marshall as geographic human concentration, supporting specialisation and labour market pooling, and, most importantly, geographic proximity, facilitating the spread of information. Thus urban agglomeration increases productivity and reduces public per capita spending requirements because of scale economics. It also increases the occurrence and viability of services, human capital formation and today’s knowledge-based economic activity.

The output from urban agglomeration is the formation and growth of cities, epitomised by the density of people and density of firms. Cities are increasingly dominant in the world’s economies and are now responsible for most of their national wealth creation.

Furthermore, large towns, particularly if they physically merge with another large one, can also agglomerate into cities. A current Irish example of this process at work is the formation of the State’s sixth city. This is Drogheda’s agglomeration with Laytown-Bettystown-Mornington, including Donacarney village, and their densifying areas that link these former individual settlements to creating a greater Drogheda population now approaching 90,000 with a settlement grid agglomeration that now matches the population of and exceeds the density of Waterford city. The Drogheda City Status Group is in the process of petitioning Government to confirm-----