John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. I have an open mind as to which is better as well - possibly an extension to the end of September. That would allow us as a committee to meet to discuss this and give sufficient feedback. That would be appropriate, but that is a discussion for another day.

The area I want to focus on is the population targets, specifically as regards Waterford. This has been a bugbear of mine for some time. The fact that the metropolitan area strategic map, MASP, for Waterford does not include the Tramore area is a really serious cause for concern. Tramore is only 7 km or 8 km out the road. More than 90% of the population of Tramore work in the city and get their main services in the city. It is a suburb in the same way as Carrigaline is to Cork, Shannon is to Limerick or Salthill is to Galway, yet the NPF document says that Waterford city and suburbs should grow by 28,000 people to at least 88,000 in total. That would lead you to believe that the population of Waterford city and suburbs is currently 60,000, when the actual metropolitan area of Waterford, which includes the Tramore area, under census 2022, has a population of 75,210. I am trying to understand - and I have never been able to get an answer - why a suburb like Tramore has been excluded from the Waterford metropolitan area strategic plan, MASP. Second, if that is the case, we want to see the population growth but it needs to be off the actual figures right now as opposed to an artificially low figure, I would argue.