Mr. Paul Hogan:

When we assess performance against that, we can already see a gap opening up. As a result, we have to be realistic. We have been accused of centralising policy. We are very clear that it is up to the region and the local authorities to determine how to achieve growth. We would very much welcome a compact growth strategy for any of the regional cities. Again, to talk about Limerick, there is a directly elected mayor who has ambitions for the city and would have views in regard to this sort of thing. It is something that we feel needs to be seriously considered locally.

The question was asked previously about how we achieve a more compact city or more compact development generally. A wise person said to me some years ago that density enables amenity and amenity makes density irrelevant. We have to create good places, they have to be attractive and people have to, I suppose, trade off living in a smaller, denser house for excellent amenities on the doorstep. A modern interpretation of that is the 15-minute city. Again, I strongly agree with the transport planning research. If people do not travel by sustainable means for the main commute of the day, they are unlikely to do that for other journeys or trips. Therefore, the really important thing is to get people on a bus or a train or, if possible, making local journeys on foot or by bike, whether to bring kids to activities or going to the shops. That can be achieved through compact master planning.