Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In particular, the report recommends that we should focus on the other big cities - Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Galway - and that will be very much at the centre of the national planning framework when it is published. That will not be at the exclusion of growth in rural Ireland and other places but the ESRI report is clear and stark in that regard. If we do nothing, too much of the population growth will happen in Dublin and Leinster. If we do something and if we put together a realistic plan, half the growth will still happen in Dublin and Leinster, but we might be able to get half of it in the rest of the country as well. That is what we want.

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