Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the officials for their contributions so far. I am looking at page 9 where the current problems and issues are outlined, which this document aims to address. It states; "Cities like Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford [are] growing but not at the pace or scale required to function as realistic alternatives to Dublin." What I am looking at is a document that is not in any way trying to address that. The overall expected population growth is 920,000. Of that, the aim is to put 500,000 people into the five cities. Overall, only 4% of the population increase will be put into Galway, which is the only city in the northern and western region.

Why is that important? It is important because it defines what future governments will invest in. For instance, we need a much enhanced rail network, compact growth in the city and more houses in Galway. In the last 12 months, 420 houses were built. All of this infrastructure requires governments to take the strategic objectives for the region seriously. What I see in this document is the complete opposite to that.

Mr. Hogan mentioned engagement with regional assemblies. The Northern and Western Regional Assembly is incredibly frustrated at the lack of investment in our region. I do not see anything in this document to address that. I have a concern about that. I do not understand why the Department has not tried to address the very issue it raises at the start of the document. I believe the future counterparts of the witnesses and our own future counterparts will be sitting here having a conversation in 2040 and that those future representatives of the Department will say that it is not realistic to think about having an alternative to Dublin because of all of the decisions made over the last 15 years.

Another concern of mine is that the Department is saying that approximately 50% of the 920,000 additional people will go into the cities while the very opening strategy is to encourage compact growth. It is not compact growth if only 50% of the growth is in the cities. I am not entirely sure where the rest is to be. It seems to fly in the face of what the Department says is its objective.