Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)

I share Deputy Coffey's concern and thank him for raising this issue.

The aims of the national spatial strategy include achieving a better balance of social, economic and physical development between regions through the co-ordinated development of nine gateway cities and towns, including Waterford and Limerick, and nine hub towns, together with complementary policies to activate the potential for lasting economic development in their hinterlands and wider regions.

The emerging research, which is timely and which I very much welcome, clearly confirms that some of the NSS gateways and their wider regions are performing well albeit in regard to an individual but very important indicator of employment. National recovery depends on individual regional contributions so the performance of gateways such as Dublin and others must be welcomed. However, the research confirms previous work by my Department, in conjunction with the two regional assemblies in 2009, in developing a gateway development index. This index showed that some of the other larger gateways, in particular Limerick-Shannon and Waterford, are not performing to their full potential. This is adversely affecting the performance of their wider regions. The challenge for gateways that are not performing to their full potential is to look to the success factors driving stronger gateways and replicate those conditions in their own areas. Long-term planning frameworks such as the NSS are important, but they need to be monitored continually to ensure they reflect wider economic and social circumstances.

The conclusions of the 2009 gateway development index fed into the NSS Update and Outlook Report, which was published in October 2010. My Department continues to work with other Departments and agencies and the local government sector in advancing actions identified in the report under the headings of: better alignment and prioritisation of scarce infrastructura investment; improved governance at national, regional and local levels; and the promotion of more sustainable patterns of development, in both rural and urban contexts, through more effective, evidence-based planning policies.

Much good work has been completed already. Through the adoption of updated regional planning guidelines and the introduction of core strategies in city and county development plans, the Government is taking real steps to prioritise the development of the gateways in a way that previous Administrations did not. The capital review will allow many good projects to progress in a co-ordinated fashion in many of the gateways, including housing regeneration projects, investment in schools and research and innovation capacity, water services and local transport initiatives.

With regard to the particular focus in the report on foreign direct investment, the Government is acutely aware that such investment is a major source of employment in Ireland, providing some 240,000 jobs, in both direct and indirect employment. In this regard, the IDA Horizon 2020 presents Ireland's strategy for attracting investors into Ireland and for investing companies and the economy to benefit mutually from the relationship. It is important to recognise that the IDA Ireland strategy is strongly aligned with the national spatial strategy. For example, the fourth of the ten steps to transformation in the strategy aims to encourage 50% of foreign direct investment projects to take place in regional gateways outside Dublin and Cork, obviously including Waterford and Limerick. In that regard and taking up the governance theme that was referred to in the national spatial strategy update and outlook report, I should mention that the Minister, Deputy Hogan, is finalising a comprehensive policy statement on local government that will address local government structures at regional, county and sub-county levels, their powers and functions and other matters. Steps have also been taken to rationalise local government structures in Limerick. The initiatives I have mentioned will ensure spatial planning supports and facilitates investment and development in the right place at the right time. I acknowledge that Deputy Coffey spoke about the high level of unemployment in Waterford, in particular. He also raised issues of health and education. I will convey his remarks to the relevant Ministers.

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