Maura Hopkins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for being here. In regard to the national planning framework and rural Ireland, one of the biggest challenges in terms of maintaining rural communities is access to employment. If we want people and families to remain in and return to rural Ireland, we need to ensure there are jobs in rural areas. Deputy Canney gave the example of Parkmore in Galway city. I will give another example. There is an IDA Ireland business park in Ballinasloe. Similar to the example outlined by Deputy Canney in relation to Tuam, it is under-utilised. We need to ensure there is positive discrimination towards towns like Ballinasloe that has very good infrastructure and can be accessed via two exits off the M6. It also has relatively good broadband and very good community and educational facilities, but there are insufficient jobs to sustain people to live and work there. There are far too many people getting up very early in the morning to travel to work when they could be working in their own local area. What we need is balance in terms of infrastructure development in relation to cities, particularly Galway city which in terms of traffic is absolutely chaotic. As I said earlier, there is excellent infrastructure in Ballinasloe but businesses are not being incentivised to locate there. Last week, I had a meeting with representatives of the IDA Ireland business park and a local community group at which I raised the issue of Ballinasloe not receiving its fair share in terms of regional development despite its excellent infrastructure and so on.

I have read the national planning framework. I have also read the Western Development Commission submission. Following on from the Minister of State's second contribution, I am satisfied that growth in the west and north west will be a focus of the national planning framework rather than a regional spatial and economic strategy. We want our fair share in terms of development and we will contribute to that, but we need to be supported. I welcome that growth in these areas is a focus of the national planning framework. As stated by the Minister of State, the framework and the capital plan are linked. I am concerned that there are specific actions and recommendations set out in the plan in regard to the five cities but there are not detailed or specific actions in regard to rural Ireland, in particular actions around reversal of rural decline. I am not sure how it is planned to achieve it. I am practical person and I like to see practical actions to support villages, towns and cities across the country, but there are no such actions in this draft plan.

I have made a detailed submission on the draft plan. All participants today have expressed real concerns that need to be taken into account in the final document. We live in rural areas and we connect with people in rural areas on a daily basis. We have good knowledge of the issues in rural Ireland. We want greater focus on the development of rural villages and towns and better support for the west and north west in the context of the national planning framework.