Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will take the Minister up on that. We should set up a scheme where communities could come to the Minister. My understanding of the national planning framework is that it should come from the bottom up. Communities could come to the Minister and ask him to use them as test case examples. We need to start being innovative and think differently, outside the box. We should not just think in conventional economic systems because the current conventional economic model is broken. Chasing the treadmill of being the fastest, best boy, global capitalist country with the lowest corporation tax is not necessarily where we need to go at the present time. We should be positioning ourselves as being a safe, secure and prosperous country but one that is willing to think outside the box and do things differently. Communities could come with suggestions of how they would do things differently and the Department could support it.

The problem I have with where we are and the reason I think nothing has changed since 2004 is I looked at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport submission to the national capital review plan and nothing has changed. I saw IBEC's utterly unsustainable submission to the national planning framework. It is all about an accelerated roads programme because we do not have public transport projects ready to go. From my detailed work on cycling, I think we have the opportunity to turn this city around with greenways along the Dodder, the Tolka, the Liffey, the canal and the seafront that would dramatically enhance the economy of this country and attract the people looking to leave London.

People would be able to cycle by Sandymount strand in a way that is spectacular and would raise one's heart. Such an initiative would make this city thrive. Unfortunately, nothing has happened. For five years people have tried to get a cycle route along the River Liffey but we are back at the drawing board. In terms of the sustainability agenda, across the board there is no vision for how this country could go green. This budget must change things and ensure we get real because a sustainable economy will create a better economic future and a better society.