Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Much of the fanfare surrounding the publication of Project Ireland 2040 has fallen flat. That is because it is an insincere attempt by this Government to promote itself and has become, in effect, an extremely expensive publicity stunt. While there has been a lot of commentary about moving away from local politics in the drafting of this national policy, I have no shame in stating the case for County Donegal or in stating I believe more should have been offered in the drafting of the national development plan.

Donegal has persistently been sidelined in national policy and as a result suffers from chronic underinvestment and unbalanced regional growth. Project Ireland 2040 calls itself futuristic because it sets out development in Ireland for the next generation. The contents of Project Ireland 2040, however, are really projects which should have been carried out ten years ago, not in ten years' time. We should be seeing this money within the next few years because we are so behind economically and in terms of infrastructure in this country thanks to the austerity policies pushed through by Fine Gael and Labour. It is also an intensely commercially-led high-tech plan, which leaves little room for rural development or for projects which have a social value element to them. What is evident in Project Ireland 2040 is that Donegal can expect to be forgotten for another generation thanks to the national development plan once again continuing the trend of excluding the needs of Donegal and rural Ireland from national policy.

The Government has been keeping its cards close to its chest in terms of specific county-by-county projects. What I do see for County Donegal is really quite comical, particularly the commentary on the announcement of some projects in Donegal, namely, that Project Ireland 2040 will be a game-changer. At least Donegal's situation is different from that of Dublin and Galway in respect of their railway developments because the plan announces projects for Donegal that have already started and that are almost finished. At least we know we are getting these projects because they are nearly complete anyway.

This plan is anything but a game-changer for Donegal. Most of the projects have already been announced and, in some cases, projects are being announced which are very near completion. I have heard and read the figure of 179 being bandied about in terms of the number of projects in the plan which have previously been announced. It is baffling to think the Government thought it could get away with promising future projects that are already nearing completion. For example, the Donegal Bay sewage scheme servicing Bundoran, Killybegs and Glencolumbkille is approximately 90% complete but will be rolled out in this plan. The N56 from Glenties to Lettermacaward is almost half complete, but it will also be rolled out under this plan. The Ballybofey bypass has been on the cards for years and the announcement today does nothing to make it a reality. The reference to radiology services for Letterkenny University Hospital actually relates to refurbishment money going back to the flooding in 2011. On the State-owned harbour in my native town of Killybegs, €5 million of the almost €8 million which has been announced relates to previously announced works. I have tabled a question to the Minister on this issue because it was recently announced in my constituency that Killybegs harbour was to receive nearly €8 million when it appears that only €3 million is actually new money and that the rest is tied up in contractual commitments going back a number of years.

I must also laugh at the statement on broadband and the claim that the roll-out will be expedited. Was this included in the draft plan prior to the scandal surrounding Eir pulling out of the tendering process? If this is to be achieved the Government will have to play a lot of catch-up. There is nowhere near the capacity to develop this process given the specific delays which the plan has experienced. Are Departments even talking to each other? This plan was only published on Friday and yet does not include any of that in it.

The Government is sending out a contradictory message here with large sums of money being allocated to road upgrades while the local authority has been rejecting applications for local improvement scheme payments across Donegal. I have been holding a number of emergency clinics to help people to set up their appeals. It would have been wise for the Government to have provided sufficient funding for the ongoing needs of road users at a local level as well as announcing grand projects. Why I am talking about roads when everybody else in the country is talking about railways? It is because we do not have any railways and never will. We do not have roads and probably will not have roads in the future either. On my 160-mile journey home from here, I drive on a motorway for 20 miles. We will not have a railway. We would love to have a railway. Indeed, there was a railway station in my own town of Killybegs but it was closed in 1963. The railway was abolished. The whole county of Donegal was well served by the railway which was taken out by previous Governments. We cannot expect to have any railway in the future.

This brings me to another problematic aspect of Project Ireland 2040. The plan is very top-heavy and primarily focuses on developing Letterkenny while the west and south west of the county remain largely absent. Not only will this kind of development place a lot of emphasis on one urban centre, but it will ensure increasing population growth in Letterkenny, as people continue to migrate from rural villages, encouraging even more depopulation. I spoke on the issue of depopulation already today with the Minister, Deputy Ring, who seemed to think that everything was fine and rosy in rural Ireland. I highlighted the plague of depopulation in Donegal, which is experiencing the highest rate of depopulation in the country. In fact, only two other counties have experienced depopulation, while the rest of the country has seen an increase in population. That is because everybody is moving from Donegal to work in Dublin. The Minister made much of the fact that the live register in Donegal had declined by more than 9,000 in recent years. He forgot to mention that only 2,000 jobs had been created despite the live register declining by 9,000. That is because these people are living in Australia, England, America, Dublin and places like that.

It is also a myth that much more development can be carried out in Letterkenny. Letterkenny is an absolute disaster in terms of planning and everything else. It will not be able to take the population that would be there unless those issues are dealt with straight away. The north west is heading in the opposite direction to the rest of the country. Project Ireland 2040 will only entrench it further. While it does contain a new rural regeneration fund of €1 billion to support rural renewal and reduce population decline, it is very scant on detail. It remains to be seen how much of this will be targeted at county level. It will probably be announced in the next plan, 20 years from now.

We should be seeing equal consideration for the development of urban centres and rural villages. We need to provide funding and supports for rural villages to develop their own local economies, to bring in local employment and develop as sustainable, vibrant places to live. Much of job creation will depend on broadband roll-out, of course, but in the meantime it is about accessing proper supports and structures that can reverse the population trend. Ultimately, we need to see a reversal of the damaging Fine Gael policies and the legacy left behind by the Labour Party, which have encouraged the retreat of rural services. The retreat of rural services is a blight on rural Ireland and has spread to the private sector too, as small towns like Ardara are now left with no banking facilities at all. I have also been carrying out a business survey across Donegal, talking to businesses, who generally seem to be the only people the Government actually listens to. The response has been very good so far but what is alarming from them is the level of anxiety regarding the continued trend of depopulation and the retreat of rural services. Project Ireland 2040 was an opportunity for a targeted approach with both urban and rural aspects side by side in equal measure and in symbiosis, not in direct competition with each other.

I would like to go on and talk about the cross-Border element and Brexit. The document seems to suggest that Brexit is not happening, which is good news for all of us in Donegal because the only development in the plan for Donegal is cross-Border between Letterkenny and Derry. Hopefully Brexit will not happen and that can go ahead. It seems to be just a sop that was thrown in at the last minute to satisfy us.

See this speech in context