Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I certainly agree with Deputy John Deasy on the need for balanced regional development, about which there is no question and for which I have always fought. As a member of Dublin County Council, for example, I noted the problems faced in Dublin involving too much pressure on services, including transport services, and inadequate infrastructure which did not benefit from proper investment. It has been clear for decades that development is considerably imbalanced, as is evident from the fact that virtually one third of the population of the State is in the greater Dublin area. It would certainly be to the benefit of society and communities nationally to have balanced investment. The great difference between Deputy John Deasy and me is that he believes this will come from private capitalists and I do not. Experience in the past five or six years shows that it will not come from private capitalists. What private capitalists have done to the people of Waterford, in particular, in recent years is an outrage on many fronts. The dissolution of Waterford Glass, for example, was an economic crime against the entire society but particularly against the people of Waterford. In a part of the country that desperately needed industry there was an A1 industry of worldwide renown. It is not gone entirely because there are some small developments involving craftsmen and craftswomen, but in reality the industry could have been developed as a national resource had it been taken into public ownership when the private capitalists were walking away. What was done to the workers in Bausch + Lomb was breathtaking. Again, a private multinational is involved. I certainly agree, therefore, on the issue of agency funding.

Social housing, an issue we have discussed, is one phenomenon that would ensure balanced development because it is needed in every part of the country.

Finally, amendment No. 15 seeks to insert the phrase “with emphasis on the provision of necessary, publicly owned infrastructure”. Publicly owned infrastructure is the key point. We have heard about the disaster of trying to rely on a private sector in which the developers and big builders are driven purely by profit. When that goes awry, as it has, communities are left high and dry. We have seen that to be the case all over Dublin, with community redevelopment projects that are simply stranded because a private developer has gone bust.

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