Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I will make just one other point on that. There is a national strategy as to how development should happen: consolidation at city level, then suburban level and, less favoured, outer-suburban level. However, that is not what is happening; in fact, it is the reverse of what is happening. If you look at trends over the past 20 years, you can see that the overall population has grown but, in fact, Dublin city in 1996 accounted for 13% of the population, while today it accounts for little over 11%. However, if you start looking at where the growth has happened, it is really an arc around Fingal, Meath, Kildare and part of south Dublin. The same profile is happening around Cork. There is a mismatch. There is probably capacity in areas that are not growing substantially, like the city centres in terms of facilities, but then there is a duplication of need in suburban and outer-suburban areas. We therefore have to question if the ideal in terms of the consolidation of a more sustainable type of development is actually happening and, if not, how do we provide the services for the areas in which people are actually living? I do not think the numbers lie as to where people are.