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

A specific case which Mr. Hogan will know well is what has been happening in Dublin city and county over the past number of years. Clearly, the vast majority of new residential development has been on the county side of the M50. Adamstown SDZ and Clonburris are examples. That counts as compact growth because it is within existing settlements and plans. Comparatively speaking, very little has been built within the urban core of Dublin, particularly inside the canals. There may be a little more in the area between the canals and the M50 and a significant amount from the M50 out into the commuter belt. Almost all of that would qualify as compact growth under the CSO definition which Mr. Fulcher outlined but there is a view that this growth is not as compact as we would like because we would like a lot more of it within the urban cores. Is that a concern? How will the revision Mr. Fulcher spoke about address that in how we understand what is happening? As we saw with censuses, depopulation in the urban core of Dublin continues at quite an alarming rate in the residential populations. People might move out to where we are in the suburbs, the north of the constituency or the east of Meath or Kildare. It looks like the compact growth requirement is being met but actually there is still a significant amount of suburban sprawl and involuntary commuting because of the lack of compact growth, for example, in the centre of Dublin.