Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O'Dowd. The Deputy referred to the national spatial strategy that we had in previous times as a joke and I can only agree. That strategy did not have any alignment with national spending priorities and was thus undermined from the outset because the money was not being directed to the areas that were meant to be developed.

It was not a good plan, unfortunately. Politics got involved in what was good planning, and the political priorities led to the designation of parts of the country as hubs and gateways which probably should not have been designated as such. There was no joined-up thinking and it was not coherent as a planning document.

It also fell foul of decentralisation. This was a silo decision taken by a Government which had no regard to the spatial strategy that had come before it. With the national planning framework we are trying to ensure we have a system where the possibility of making those mistakes again is eliminated. One of the key differences is that the national planning framework is going to become law. There will now be a planning regulator, which we have never had before. The Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy English, is taking that legislation through Report Stage at the moment on behalf of the Department. It is going to be aligned with the national investment plan for the next ten years. It is also being aligned across departmental priorities, so that when different Departments look to the future of, for example, a city such as Waterford, they understand what the plans are for the north quays, where a bridge is to be built. The north quays, which is now almost entirely in public ownership, need to be redeveloped. That kind of joined-up thinking did not exist before. This plan should be seen as a foundation or bedrock for everything to come. The national spatial strategy was never seen as the bedrock for any other type of planning.

A number of other things are not mentioned. The cities are mentioned, but they make up only 50% of this plan. We want to see the population grow in cities, but they are also important in terms of how we want people to live. This is not a plan about cities. The cities are named because they are where 50% of the growth is going to be. Other places are not named in the plan because we are not going to try to dictate to other parts of the country what their priorities should be in this document. That is why the regional spatial and economic strategies are the next very important layer in terms of planning in the three regions and where development will grow. Aligned with that is a smart growth fund. A region can nominate or designate a particular part to compete for additional funding to ensure that it can achieve the ambition that the region has for that area. That is another important part of the plan that makes it different from the national spatial strategy.

The plan is not finalised. It is going out for final public consultation at the moment, which will continue until 3 November. This engagement is crucial, and it is not just the engagement that we will have in public session today but also the engagements that members of this committee will have privately and the recommendations on the report that they will finalise. A key part of this plan is the input from the Oireachtas, and we will listen to it very closely. Remembering that we think North-South in the economic corridor, it is crucially important that we keep that in mind as we think about the potential future growth of the country up until 2040.