Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Many of the buildings which are held by the OPW are also on saleable leases. If Departments move, including some Departments near here, they can sell on some very lucrative contracts. We need to consider what the bottom line figure for that will be in five or ten years time. One can receive far better offers throughout the country, as we all know. Some of the buildings which are held are quite expensive. I do not refer to the old traditional buildings, but to buildings which have been leased and rented by the OPW. We have to take that into the equation. I am not certain about the ESRI. If we are to have balanced regional development, we need to stop the growth of Dublin over the next 20 or 25 years. I think Deputy Rabbitte will agree that we do not want to have 2 million people, from a total population of 5 million, living in Dublin. I do not suggest that decentralisation will bring an end to all of these problems — I am not making that argument. We must ensure Dublin city is not crippled by its population. This does not happen in other countries. Balanced regional development means the State has a role to play in moving people and industry to the regions in every possible way and we must be aggressive in doing so. The 10,000 people represent a small part because, even if they went tomorrow, they are only 10,000 out of 4.3 million people. We must stop the strangulation of the Dublin area which is neither good for Dublin nor the rest of the country.

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