Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I cannot support the original motion because of the first sentence, which calls on the Government to "ensure that these boundaries, which are the essence of who we are as a people, are protected". Cities grow; they do not stand still. I will tell a story, which may be a myth, but it is a commonly known story in Limerick about a fellow called Seán an Scuab. He was a chimney sweep - Deputy Harty probably knows this story - and somebody was stupid enough to say that the next person to come in from Clare over Thomond Bridge would become mayor of Limerick. The first person to come over the bridge was this chimney sweep called Seán an Scuab. The reason I tell this story is because the boundary of Limerick at that time was Thomond Bridge. If anybody knows where that is, the boundary has extended a couple of times way beyond that since then.

We recently went through the same process as Cork is currently going through where the city proposed extending the boundary and the county opposed it. Clare also opposed it. One point in the motion about bringing in an independent person probably is a good idea because although one might not call him totally independent, Denis Brosnan was brought in and he eventually proposed a merger of Limerick city and county, but with Clare left out. Incidentally, that was not my position. I wanted an extension of the city, but with a plebiscite for the Clare part of it. The decision was to merge Limerick city and county, but I accept that Cork is very different. It is a much bigger county than Limerick. I was not in favour of what was proposed in Limerick at the time, but it has worked fairly well. There was co-operation and people worked together for the greater good once the decision was made. As an aside, I wish Deputy Ó Laoghaire well tonight in winning the league but I am pleased that Limerick stopped them from winning it two weeks ago.

Deputy Michael McGrath and others made the point that there needs to be dialogue and some kind of financial discussions about what would be appropriate. There also needs to be discussion, as others have said, about where the boundaries should be because it is probably right to say that they should not extend to the separate villages and towns that are outside the greater urban area.

My main point is that cities simply cannot stay the way they are forever. They grow and they expand. In Limerick, suburbs such as Raheen, Dooradoyle, the UL university hospital, the University of Limerick itself and Castletroy - the biggest suburbs around Limerick - were all in the county until the merger happened. That just was not sustainable. Cities have to be given the possibility to grow. There will always be differences, but I hope they can work out something that is agreeable to people in Cork. Everyone will not agree, but there has to be much more discussion.

I agree that there should be a sub-county tier of local government that is different from the municipal authorities. That issue certainly needs to be revisited. It cannot be what were the old town councils. In my area, there was no town council in Limerick, despite having large villages and towns such as Newcastle West, Abbeyfeale and Castleconnell, whereas there were much smaller places in other counties that had town councils. However it is done, it must be in a way that includes a definition of a town. That cannot be as arbitrary as it was in the past. This is something that needs to be revisited.

Regarding the importance of the expected national planning framework, drafts have been published and there have been discussions, but it is important for the country that we have proper planning and that we rebalance Ireland. We must ensure that the rural parts of Ireland are looked after as well as the urban parts. The rebalancing, in particular, between Dublin and the rest of the country, has to happen. This does not get a significant amount of debate but it really needs to be thoroughly discussed.

In the context of rebalancing the rest of the country with Dublin, I welcome the announcement last week about the M20 between Cork and Limerick. It is very much needed. The only question I would have is that the sum mentioned was only for the next phase of planning. Significant amounts will be required, particularly for land acquisition and then for the full construction of the road, the cost of which has been estimated at anywhere between €800 million and €1 billion. I do not know exactly how much will be in the capital plan, but we need a commitment from the Government that this will not just go through the planning and design phase and there will be real cash on the table to progress it further. If the second and third cities of the Republic are not properly connected, we will not see the kind of rebalancing of the country that we require. If this road is completed, we will have a link from Cork to Limerick to Galway, and further on up along the west, that I hope will be a proper motorway to allow economic and social development.

I look forward to seeing the full detail of the capital plan and to debating it here. I hope we will devote as much time to debating the national planning framework as we have done to some other issues that we have debated here, week after week, because it will make an enormous difference to the future of the country. It is a debate in which, where possible, all political parties should engage without involving any partisan politics.

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this debate. The Labour Party cannot support the main motion before the House but there are certainly very good elements in both it and the various amendments that have been proposed to it.

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