Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to address the national planning framework. I will speak as a national legislator and as an east Galway Deputy. As a national legislator, the most important thing I am looking for is that the vision is fair and equal to all. I would like to think that there is good and fair regional balance across the country. In the 18 months that I have been coming to Dublin as a Deputy, I can see the growth and prosperity that is happening here and in the surrounding counties. However, when I cross the Shannon at Athlone or turn at Tullamore, I do not feel the same wealth or see growth happening. I welcome that the national framework may possibly address this, but it is a toothless exercise unless proper capital infrastructure funding is put aside to deliver it.

I slightly regret that the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, is here. The Minister, Deputy Shane Ross, was here earlier and I would have appreciated it if he had heard my views. Much of what I have to say has to do with infrastructure regarding roads, rail, greenways and tourism. They are issues in east Galway. I live on one side of the Shannon bridge in Portumna. On the other side are Tipperary and Offaly. When I cross the Shannon, I enter the "Ancient East". On my side of the bridge is County Galway and there is no development of anything to do with the Shannon there. That part of the infrastructure and framework is critical for the vision to grow Ireland. The Wild Atlantic Way and the marketing of Ireland's Ancient East have been so successful and it is very important that we have the same opportunity to develop the branding and marketing of the River Shannon. Some 23 different county councils feed into the Shannon and that development and framework is very important for us. It is important to know that funding is there, and we do not look for very much money for marketing.

Many of the rural communities have done much of this work already themselves. They need funding in respect of the role of Waterways Ireland. Many of the communities up and down the Shannon depend on Waterways Ireland, which used to be known as Shannon Navigation in the old days. They depend on it for cleaning the Shannon and for the signage along the river. Waterways Ireland was one of the subsidiaries that fell under the Good Friday Agreement and, at this time, while the Irish Government pays 80% of the funding towards it, 80% of the employment it creates is in the North. We have a disparity there which is very evident in places like Killaloe, Portumna or further up towards Shannon Harbour. I would like to see how that will feed into the national framework document.

It would be remiss of me not to talk about the gridlock we experience in Galway city. Most of my constituents go into Galway city. The Minister's colleague, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, spoke very eloquently about the gridlock in Parkmore earlier on. I have been attending meetings with various business developers from IBEC in Galway and in Westport for two years.

Boston Scientific, Baxter Limited and Medtronic are all experiencing the same problem at Parkmore. It is the main topic of discussion for them every year when they get together. To most people, the Parkmore issue is not a difficult one. It is about putting in place another road to let traffic out. Unfortunately, addressing the issue fell between stools in the local county councils and Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, but progress has made. It takes the 4,200 people working in this estate up to an hour and a half to get out of it. Most of these people are from the east, not the west.

The M17 and M18 were opened a number of weeks ago. While I welcome and appreciate this progress, regrettably, all the traffic is yet again being fed into Galway city. While the opening of the M17 and M18 has led to people getting to Galway a lot quicker, the volume of traffic from the M17, M18 and main Dublin-Galway road is causing congestion where our business development is located. Parkmore happens to be on that side of the city. The Minister is nodding, which would indicate he has heard what I am saying a hundred times before. At the last meeting which I attended with IBEC, we were told it would be approximately ten more years before a light rail or outer right ring road is developed. If that is the case, we are going to lose business in Galway. While this project is mentioned in the framework, I do not think we can wait ten years for the plans for its development. I am concerned that if we have to wait that long, business will go elsewhere. Business needs connectivity. Businesses need to know that their staff will not have to spend an hour and a half trying to access their place of employment. They do not want to have to rearrange their shifts and start times to 7.30 a.m. or 8 a.m. to facilitate staff. It is not only people working in Parkmore that are impacted. There is a huge volume of people working in our universities and hospitals who have to leave their homes at 5.50 a.m. in the hope that they will make it to work for 8 a.m., which is ridiculous given many of these people live only a half an hour out the road. I will not labour the point as I think the Minister understands the Galway city transport issue. A number of Deputies spoke about how wonderful a place Galway is to visit. Those who want to do so should aim to be there before 3 p.m. on a Friday. After that time, they will be stuck in traffic for three or four to hours. This is not what we want. Galway will be the capital of culture in 2020. It is important we can get tourists in, around and out of the county in a timely manner.

I would like to also speak about greenways. The funding provided in budget 2018 for greenways is very welcome. Greenways are another form of freight. They are the freight of people that we can bring into our counties. In terms of connectivity, the Dublin to Galway greenway is a huge issue at this time. We need to look at ways to bypass obstacles. We need to connect with the people in terms of this framework. Why is it that the only option in terms of getting people from Athlone to Galway is through productive farmland? This proposal will never merit support. Anybody in government will find it very hard to sell to a farmer the idea that he or she should allow his or her productive farmland to be divided up. This is the same farmland that was divided in the context of the development of the Dublin-Galway road. It is the same farmland that came into focus in relation to the Gort to Tuam bypass. Farmers are resistant to this and so we need to look at alternative areas where there is lots of Coillte land and Government-owned properties.

On rural towns, none of the towns in my constituency has a population of more than 10,000. While my constituency is quite large, not one of the towns in it has a population of 10,000. Only one of them has a population of 7,500. It is important when we are looking at balanced regional development that the planning structures to be put in place for rural housing development are also considered. If we want to have people working in regional hubs, they need to be able to get in and out of them easily. We must give people the balanced lifestyle that they so choose when they live in the west or anywhere outside of Dublin or the surrounding counties. We have to give them the opportunity, if they so wish, to build in places such as Woodford or Headford. People who want to build on the family farm and seek planning permission to do so should not find themselves in an urban fringe or be faced with restrictive planning conditions because it was decided in a county development plan that they cannot build in a particular area. They might come from that area and have been educated there and are now looking to put their children into schools in that area. County councils need huge input into this area and that will come through this framework.

I am disappointed that the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, has left the House. In regard to the funding provided for Galway County Council, it is currently two weeks away from a budget and almost broke. The distribution of equalisation funds needs to be revisited in order that we can keep councils alive and allow them to deliver the planning framework.

See this speech in context