John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to be able to speak on this topic. As my party's spokesperson on Dublin, I want to focus on some small aspects of the national planning framework, NPF, that affect Dublin. I will be coming back to my constituency, as we all do, because everybody's constituency in one way or another is a microcosm of the State.

The ultimate objective of the NPF is to guide the future development of the country, taking into account particularly the projected population increase and the need for corresponding employment to meet that population increase.

We heard from the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI today of the health needs and the infrastructure the State will have to provide in the next few decades to deal with the challenges we face.

Even though the planning framework does not specifically refer in detail to Dublin, there needs to be a planned future of the city and the city region. In terms of anybody who has an interest or a stake in the city and an interest in its future, and I am mindful of bodies such as Dublin Chamber tends to get the headlines, but all the other interested bodies and stakeholders would like to see a planned future for the city. When we consider the challenges facing Dublin, from a Dublin perspective and that of some of the regional capitals, if ever there was an case for the need for a directly elected executive voice to co-ordinate plans for the future of this capital, the national planning framework demonstrates it. I know the Minister's party was supportive of it but I have heard talk recently of a move to the idea of having a directly elected major for each of the four Dublin local authorities. I do not have an issue with that as long as there is one overarching voice somewhere who can pull people together to make the strong hard decisions that need to be made and to bring the people of the capital with them.

IBEC's contribution, which is itself a fine document, to the national planning framework refers to the ranking of Dublin in global terms. We are the 20th city in global ranking, which is not a bad ranking, but I think we would all agree that it would be our ambition, aim and objective to improve it. The statistics start to spiral downwards after that. Dublin has a 43% congestion level and it take 50 minutes longer per day to commute in Dublin than it does in other parts of the country. According to IBEC, that amounts to 192 hours extra travel time per year, which is eight full days extra travel time in Dublin. I know that if I do not leave Knocklyon at 7 a.m. to come to the Dáil, there is no point leaving until 9.15 a.m. because it will take 90 minutes some days to travel 11 km to Leinster House. The national planning framework can announce pious aspirations as to how to deal with these issues in the medium and long term, and hopefully it sets out a vision for the capital, but the problem is that these are real issues facing people now in the city region.

The M50 is almost at gridlock. I get a notification to my phone from the Live Drive twitter account, which is an interesting one to follow. Even if 50% of the tweets are accurate in terms of the impact caused by delays arising from collisions occurring either on the M50 on a daily basis or on roads leading to it, never mind all the other minor collisions that occur throughout the city, it highlights that there is a great deal in which the traffic corps could be engaged. I noticed in the spending Estimates for the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport that there is a commitment to provide funding for the demand management measures that are required on the M50. This includes the digital signage that enables the National Transport Authority, NTA, to control the speeds on the M50 at peak times or during bad weather. When it appeared before the Committee on Budgetary Oversight, Transport Infrastructure Ireland said that such measures could buy it an extra five or six years in terms of the M50's capacity. This needs to be delivered very quickly. It must be fast-tracked because there are far too many collisions which are causing incredible delays and tailbacks. We know that congestion already costs an estimated €350 million annually in Ireland generally and Dublin accounts for a great deal of that amount. There are no immediate plans to deal with that but small steps could be taken.

I am speaking as my party's spokesperson on Dublin, but this is not about a Dublin versus rural divide because a prosperous Dublin creates a prosperous country. I hate to see competition, and I also hate to hear some people who occupy the seats to my left talk about everything stopping at the Red Cow roundabout. The bulk of my constituency and other Dublin constituencies are beyond the Red Cow roundabout. It is worth reminding people that the most disadvantaged areas in the country remain in Dublin and, therefore, the challenges in terms of those who are disadvantaged remain in Dublin.

The Dublin region, which also takes in Wicklow, Kildare, Meath, and Louth, generates half of Ireland's GDP. I wish to point to one area where a great deal of work needs to be done. In fairness, the previous Government gave powers to the local authorities to begin the development of tourism in the three regional Dublin county areas and a great deal more work could be done in that regard. I ask the Minister to challenge his Cabinet colleagues to compare the annual spend on research and development in tourism and the annual spend on research and development in the area of agriculture. Tourism was probably the most resilient product we had during the crash. It was at least as resilient as agriculture. It is not about attacking agriculture but about giving a product that has stood the test of time, and that is like gold to our economy, equal status, or at least the status it deserves.

Although Dublin Chamber is not the oracle on all things Dublin, it is a useful guide with respect to the issues that bother employees in the Dublin region because the companies they represent employ close to 300,000 people. The most immediate problems facing Dubliners, as the Minister will know as he is a Dublin Deputy, are the chronic housing shortage, the high cost of rent, about which the Minister has heard enough during the past hour and half, and the transport options. After the housing and rental challenges facing the Government, it will be judged on the solutions it brings forward in short-term initiatives and responses to the transport challenges which involve the chronic and growing gridlock in the city and its surrounding areas.

Everybody from Dublin Chamber to IBEC has spoken about building upwards in Dublin, and the Minister has also mentioned it. In criticising him, I have asked where is the queue of developers applying for planning permission. I believe the Minister and I would share a vision about how we would like to see Dublin built and developed. The national planning framework offers an opportunity to feed into this in a constructive way. It cannot be left exclusively to planners. Dubliners are crying out to be shown a vision of what a high-rise Dublin might look like, whether that might be done through an international architecture competition or otherwise. Dublin Chamber has broken some ground on this and it has a good video showing what a futuristic Dublin could look like. Some of it is very attractive, and some of it is very challenging. It would not necessarily be to my taste. The Minister will only get Dubliners to buy into the notion of high rise if they see it is accompanied by amenities, appropriate recreational, community and performance spaces and it fits in the context of the city. I would like to see the planning framework deal with that aspect.

Regarding transport, all the Deputies who come into this Chamber, particularly from the Leinster counties, will tell the Minister about the growing gridlock. We need to move quickly to provide large park and ride facilities to facilitate public transport into the city. We also need to facilitate park and ride facilities that promote the use of public transport. Before we can promote the use of public transport and deliver on a national planning framewark, the Government will have to invest in public transport in order that people know that if they wish to use that option that it is available.

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