Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have made a commitment to strengthen the wording to allay concerns on this issue. I ask members not to misrepresent the contents of the plan. We are here to engage with the facts.

Senator Hopkins referred to Ballinasloe and other towns. In my previous job in the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, as it was then known, we went to great lengths to engage with all the stakeholders in enterprise and try to persuade investors to invest in towns and villages as opposed to Dublin, Cork, Galway and so forth. In the past year, approximately 70% of the jobs created have been outside the Dublin and Cork regions. We want this trend to continue. In some regions, albeit not all of them, towns and villages have enjoyed considerable success in this regard. We must ask why certain locations have not been successful. The Government cannot drag a company to Ballinasloe or force it to invest in the town. However, choices can be made at regional or county level on the towns and growth centres to be made more attractive to business and on identifying what industries and businesses should locate in a town. In general, companies want access to talent, people and skills, which returns us to the issue of apprenticeships, further education and training and linkages with institutes of technologies and universities. These are all essential requirements that regions must meet if they wish to win jobs. We have agreed to strengthen the wording on this issue in the plans.

People often choose to live in cities. Companies then decide to invest in cities because it is here that the talent is to be found. We want to make towns and villages more attractive places to live because if people choose to live in them, their chances of securing investment will increase. However, these decisions cannot be made by the Government at national level. Regional and local choices must be made and every county has influence on these choices. As such, regional strategies are just as important as the national plan because it at this level that decisions are made on the "wheres" and "whens".

I do not agree with Deputy Penrose on this issue. The Government deliberately decided not to give something to everyone in the audience because that was the mistake made in previous plans. We are providing that decisions must also be made at regional level, which will mean politicians must make decisions for their regions and counties.

Deputy Ó Cuív asked how will investment be made in towns and villages. The purpose of the smart growth funds is to target villages, towns, cities and key areas of deprivation, as well as the RAPID areas in towns. When the Deputy was a Minister he visited Navan, Ballinacree and Oldcastle which are CLÁR and RAPID areas. There are areas of decline in all towns and villages and we cannot ignore them. We are planning to address and fix them. We are trying to achieve growth. We recognise that cities are meant to benefit the wider region but parts of the regions are not benefiting from growth in the cities. Many people drive into Galway city to work but that does not have to be the case. Many of the companies which have located in Galway will locate additional facilities outside the city, as is currently the case with companies in Dublin which locate secondary phases of development outside the capital. However, one must first attract the investment.

We will work with local authorities which have a central role in deciding in which towns and villages they want to invest. If they make a case to the growth funds, we will target investments. The Deputy is correct to ask where the actions are to make this happen. The strategy sets out the where and how as well as the overall regions. A number of actions will then be needed to back this up and this will be co-ordinated by all Departments. For this reason, the strategy sets out the business case for these actions and investments through various Government agencies and Departments. This has not always been done in a co-ordinated manner. The town and renewal village scheme and other schemes are not always co-ordinated in such a way as to make a significant impact. Decisions with real purpose must be made for a town or village and must include a plan for the next 25 or 30 years. Everybody in a local authority area needs to buy into the plan and investment should be directed into that choice through the various Departments. The town or village will then have been chosen to thrive. A county may choose four or five such locations but they must back up these choices to make this happen, which is what we are trying to do in this strategy. We want long-term thinking because the decline of a town or village cannot be addressed in a couple of years. Long-term investment is required to make it attractive.

Cities present serious challenges which we are trying to address in the strategy. That is not to say all actions will be focused on cities as that is not the case.

I was asked if the Department dictates to local authorities. Approximately 300 local area plans will be submitted to me and my officials for decision in the year ahead. We rarely have to intervene in these plans. In most cases, local authorities make decisions on local areas plans which we then check, tick a box and say "Away you go". In some cases, we are required to intervene because the plan does not provide for sufficient housing. We try not to do this and we engage with the local authorities. We generally do not dictate to them and the local area plans are generally good. Local authority members make the decisions.

Members argue that villages and towns are being ruined by large shopping centres outside towns. In many cases, local councillors made the decisions which gave rise to these developments. I was a member of the committee with responsibility for enterprise for years and we discussed this matter many times. I recognise that bad decisions were made in this regard but they were made locally, rather than being dictated by national policy. We are trying to focus on breathing life back into the high streets of villages and towns. Let us put to use empty and vacant buildings. Only yesterday, I signed off on draft regulations to make it easier to use a vacant commercial building for housing purposes. In some towns and villages, such properties have been lying empty for 20 or 30 years. Let us focus our minds on trying to save rural areas. I am appearing before the joint committee because I genuinely want to engage with members on this matter.

The concerns of the committee have been expressed very well. While we do not agree with members on every point, we want to address their concerns. I hope we will be able to tweak the wording of the national planning framework to make it clearer.