Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom a bheith dearfach ach tá sé thar a bheith deacair. Tá an próiseas seo ag dul ar aghaidh ó 2015 agus tá sé anois trí bliana ina dhiadh sin. Ba mhaith liom a bheith dearfach agus na rudaí dearfacha sa cháipéis a aithint ach tá sé léite agam. Tá an plean léite agam freisin. Tiocfaidh mé ar ais. I dtús báire, this plan acknowledges that the previous spatial plan failed and that it did so for a number of reasons. The plan acknowledges that we want to move away from development that is led by developers. I really welcome this. The plan acknowledges that the one which preceded it failed for a number of reasons including: a decentralisation programme that did not work; the absence of a statutory basis for the previous plan; and the fact that there were winners and losers. This plan has no winners or losers.

It is difficult not to be cynical, particularly in view of the fact that the previous plan had no statutory basis and that this one also has no such basis. I rarely find myself in agreement with Deputy Kelly but he made some valid points in respect of the new plan. The manner of its publication last Friday beggars belief. Although the additions are welcome, the changes in recent weeks clearly undermine the process that has been going on for three years. That Members did not receive copies of the plan and were obliged to download it from the Internet tells a story about the Government's regard for the Dáil and for new politics. The most important aspect of all of this is that the plan comes in the wake of the Flood tribunal, which later became the Mahon tribunal. I wish to quote paragraph 1.02 of that tribunal's report, which states:

Throughout that period, [the 1980s to the 1990s] corruption in Irish political life was both endemic and systemic. It affected every level of Government from some holders of top ministerial offices to some local councillors and its existence [corruption] was widely known and widely tolerated.

I only have a few minutes remaining but I would say to the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, that it is worth reading the rest of paragraph 1.02.

Paragraph 1.03 states:

The Tribunal is aware that the corruption exposed by it, and by other Tribunals of Inquiry, has seriously undermined the public's faith in democracy and in particular, in its public officials, whether elected or appointed.

On foot of the tribunal's report, we supposedly learned lessons. We learned from the failure of the spatial strategy and we learned to plan for the future up to 2040. It was a great learning period. The Government then went ahead last Friday and published the plan, without a statutory basis and without discussion in the Dáil. This really does not help confidence.

6 o’clock

Chomh maith leis sin, níl cóip Ghaeilge le fáil. Tá sé náireach nach bhfuil cóip Ghaeilge le fáil ach, níos measa ná sin, tá dualgais an Rialtais faoi Acht na dTeangacha Oifigiúla 2003 sáraithe aige. Tá sé de dhualgas ar an Rialtas faoi alt 10 den Acht cóip i nGaeilge a chur ar fáil ag an am céanna a chuireann sé cóip i mBéarla ar fáil. Again, the Government has failed, not miserably, but it has failed in its legal obligations to give us an Irish version at the very same time it gives us an English version. As it is not underpinning this planning framework with legislation and is not complying with its existing obligations under legislation, it is very difficult to be positive.

Notwithstanding that, there are some good things in the plan in the area of long-term planning and in the emphasis on developing the other cities. The plan names five cities - and I am happy to see they include Galway - to balance the unsustainable overdevelopment of Dublin. I welcome that. I also welcome the Government's statement that it will transition to a low-carbon and climate-resistant society and its many uses of the word "sustainable", which one of my colleagues has already mentioned. It is a wonderful document in that way. However, when one reads the small print, and my weekend and the last few days were spoiled by doing so, one sees a complete absence of vision, a move towards the privatisation of all our services and an utter failure to recognise the crisis we have in housing.

In the chapter on Galway, one reads about problems with choice and affordability. It is way beyond choice and affordability. It is a major crisis in which 13,000 people are on a waiting list. There is absolutely no recognition of that in the plan. Public private partnerships are given a place of adoration. I sit on the Committee of Public Accounts and the Comptroller and Auditor General has repeatedly pointed out to us that, without allowing myself to exaggerate, there is a serious deficiency in the post-evaluation of public private partnerships after five years. We are told one of the reasons for this is that so doing would reveal commercially sensitive information. The Government is going further down the route of public private partnerships with absolutely no evaluation of whether they are good value for money.

There is a very good point in the plan about building more than 50% of all future developments in Galway city on brownfield sites. I absolutely welcome that. We have Ceannt Station, the docks and other very important public lands. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, agreed with me the last day when I said that development in Galway is, as usual, developer-led. Despite this lovely document, although he said he rarely agreed with me, he fully agreed with me when I talked about developer-led development in Galway without a master plan for our public lands. That is what is happening. By the time some of this plan is to be implemented, the public lands will have been compromised.

In addition, the Government is going down the route of selling off our public lands in respect of public housing. The public housing provision the Government talks about is the provision of the housing assistance payment, HAP. I have a fundamental problem with that. The Government is artificially bolstering the market all the time with its housing policy. On Galway, and to stick with the positive, the Government wants most development to happen within the city, which I welcome. However, the same plan includes an outer ring road. It is to cost up to €600 million. It must be most expensive road in the whole of the world at more than €30 million per kilometre. It will draw the development out, not in. There is a complete mismatch in this policy. There are many more things in the plan which I would love the opportunity to go into in a positive way because we only get one chance at building our vision for the future, but my time is up.

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