Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will provide a practical example to support the amendment. This is always about the tension that exists between the need for economic development, growth and physical development and, on the other hand, meeting the health and well-being needs of a community. For example, there was an interesting paper circulated last week by the Oireachtas Library and Research Service mapping new residential construction by local authority over the last while. An indicator it used which I had not seen before was the number of new dwellings per 1,000 population. In Dublin and the commuter belt, there is in Fingal and in South Dublin County Council - where I am - about ten dwellings per 1,000. In Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, it is 15 per 1,000.

There are similar figures in the commuter belt but in Dublin city, it is only five new dwellings per thousand of population. The difficulty is that while, on a narrow definition of economic growth, we are seeing residential growth and employment growth in Dublin, it is happening in a way that is unbalanced, particularly in terms of transport-orientated development to reduce the necessity to use cars, avoid suburban sprawl and so on.

This amendment, therefore, is trying to find a language or a way of balancing things. We could have very significant levels of economic growth and development, but they might be happening in a spatial pattern or spatial sequence that is detrimental to public health and well-being. That is what we are trying to capture with this amendment. One could make a similar point about the increasing incidence of people who cannot afford a new home in the suburbs and who are now buying second-hand homes in the western reaches of the greater Dublin area counties, for example, and, again, taking on very significant commutes. We would always try to make the case that economic development should not be seen in and of itself but should be integrated with, in this instance, the public health and well-being aspects of such development.