Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this so-called national planning framework. I have a different name for it. I call it the national planning to be an F word and up at the backwood, because it is anti-rural. No thought has been put into it. I went to the launch of the framework in Sligo by the former Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Coveney. He encouraged people to make submissions. I held a meeting in the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's county to learn about the county and its needs and I am sure other Deputies did likewise. I called a meeting in Sligo. I went to counties Cavan, Roscommon, Leitrim, Galway and Mayo to listen to people and try to form a constructive plan for what has been called the BMW or Border, midlands, west region, which has been deprived of funding for many years. When I look at what emerged on paper, I wonder why I bothered doing all of that. Other Members said officials reverted to those who made submissions. I made probably one of the most detailed submissions on every county I have named but did not see much reference to it in terms of what is to be done for those counties or what is ahead of them. The person responsible for the framework must not have gone outside the M50.

There is reference to the DART underground in Dublin. I took the DART to Malahide yesterday.

I come from a construction background. If €200 million can build a DART line out to the airport, continuing to Swords and other areas, it should be done - a stitch in time saves nine - instead of dreaming of spending €4 billion that will never be spent if we are honest and straight with people.

When the Minister launched the national planning framework in Sligo, I had understood that we were to focus on cities and large towns and ensure that rural life keeps going. Sligo was among the towns nominated to become a city. Will this be done? No. Athlone was also nominated. County Roscommon gets very little mention altogether. Galway city is mentioned in the framework, but the problem is that the counties in the west seem to be forgotten. Cromwell said, "To hell or to Connacht." This document seems to say, "To hell or to a big city or larger town. Forget about the rural areas."

The Brits are working on the A5 from Derry down to Aughnacloy. A spur needs to go out to the M1. Do the people in Letterkenny or other areas of Donegal not deserve a proper road? Should there not be a proper road from Letterkenny to Sligo, further on to Charlestown and on to meet the new motorway? This is not even in my constituency, but it is about ensuring balanced regional development. It is about giving everyone an opportunity and not having an apartheid system whereby the best roads and rail and everything else are in one part of the country and there is nothing elsewhere. Do those employing people in Mayo and similar counties not deserve a proper road when they come off the M4 on the approach to Mullingar, go through Edgeworthstown and Longford and continue towards Castlebar? In my opinion, they do.

Regarding rail, let us be honest with people: the plan is to get rid of four rail lines, not to increase the number of lines, at a time when our Government preaches about climate change, public transport and what we will do in 2020 and 2030. At the same time, there is no vision for the kind of infrastructure required. The national planning framework, together with another document being circulated to county managers throughout Ireland, says it very clearly: one-off houses will not be built in rural areas. By saying this, we are telling people in communities that are under a fair amount of pressure - and their local schools and shops - to wither away and die out. Above all, the one great thing in rural Ireland is the community. If the Government starves communities when it comes to one-off housing, it will ensure the slow death of rural Ireland.

Honesty is required when putting a plan together, but the national planning framework seems to be tilted in one direction. In fairness, there are major problems inside the M50; more roads and railway lines are needed. Dublin Airport must be the only main airport in the world that is not connected to a railway service. That is a damning indictment because this is a problem if we are trying to bring in tourism. We need tourism in the west of Ireland. The Wild Atlantic Way is a great success. How does one get to it? One must hire a car or cycle. Those are the only two ways. There is no train or bus to bring people directly to it. That will not bring in the number of people we need to allow many places in rural Ireland to survive and be viable.

The Minister of State needs to go back to the drawing board. We are talking about submissions, but is attention paid to submissions? Did I waste my time booking rooms for meetings in various hotels in six or seven counties because I passionately believe that an area of the country that has been neglected for years deserves the same as any other area? Does this plan examine the position of the farming community, for example? When the country was going down the Swanee, the farming community kept it going. Unfortunately, in our areas, especially in the west, we suffered mass emigration because of the sins that were committed. Every politician right across the board is working to try to ensure that jobs are created, but one must create incentives and ensure a fair playing field. As Deputy Martin Kenny rightly pointed out, if there are trees growing around people in every field, there will be no community, and if the Government subsidises this, it will choke the life out of rural areas in all counties, especially in the west, which has been badly affected.

Is there a vision for Longford, a town which, in my opinion, has been neglected for years? Is there a vision to make Athlone into a city? We hear all the talk and lovely vibes to the effect that we need another city. Waterford and Sligo were mentioned. However, this plan basically tells everyone to head to the few cities we have and create bigger ghettos. Unfortunately, the infrastructure and the housing are not there, and if we keep doing this, we will turn Ireland from a managed landscape into a wilderness. Perhaps that is the plan - to bring in the Yanks and the other tourists to look at trees growing instead of fields being productive, instead of what we call life in these areas, instead of vibrant communities working together for a common benefit. Those communities might be small but there may be children going to school in Dublin today who are nearly on top of each other in classrooms. What they would not give if they only knew the freedom and the kind of education they can get when class sizes are not as big?

We must go back to the drawing board. I will let the Deputies from the south speak for themselves. I am talking about the west, which has been neglected not only by this Government but also by those which preceded it. It has been the bad child at the back door; it got nothing and was never looked after. It needs fair play. The Minister of State - in the context of this document - needs to consider seriously how communities are made sustainable. Consider the way in which the single farm payment is dished out. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer and, unfortunately, it is the family farm that is getting poorer. As Deputy Martin Kenny said earlier, fathers are telling their families that they had better go to school, go to college and move away. Unfortunately, these families have not got fair play. If that keeps happening, the Government will get its wish in this plan of ensuring rural Ireland's demise.

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