John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will move on to the urban development zones, UDZ. I note the commentary from Mr. Hogan at the outset on the strategic development zones. There is a significant SDZ in my county of Waterford at the North Quays. One of the difficulties with it for several years has been with the upfront public infrastructure required to unlock a site after it has been designated. The urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, has played a key role in this. It is not all the URDF's responsibility, or it certainly was not in Waterford's case where transport was an integral part of it. The premise of an overarching fund that looks after the infrastructure required to unlock a site is something that must be embedded across the board. For a council to engage with so many Departments to try to get funding to unlock a site becomes unwieldy and difficult. It is great that we have managed to overcome the hurdles and we have a contractor on site building public infrastructure. How does the Department see all of these hurdles, bars and gates that must be overcome to get the funding to unlock the sites? It is all well and good saying we want to take the best bits without a UDZ but it comes down to being able to fund the infrastructure. This is what really unlocks a site.