Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

County Tipperary has been snubbed in this national development plan. It is a county with a population of approximately 160,000 and is the sixth largest county by area in the country and the second largest in the southern region. In its submission and contribution to the plan, Tipperary County Council sought to ensure that the county plays an important and central part in the future of Ireland and its southern region and believes that the county is well positioned to play that role. It went on to state that Tipperary county, its council, community, citizens, businesses, voluntary organisations have a vision capacity, track record and drive to contribute positively to achieving the goals and ambition of the plan. It recommended that the plan should recognise the importance of Clonmel to the successful development of south Tipperary, the south-east region and, indeed, the southern region. Furthermore it said that the plan should recognise the importance of Nenagh for the development of north Tipperary, the mid-west region and the southern region generally. Instead, what we got was the plan announced on Friday, which excludes all Tipperary towns from being growth centres and priority for development.

The Taoiseach's spin machine, the strategic communications unit funded by taxpayers, choreographed the launch of the national planning framework or Project Ireland 2040 on Friday. A more realistic title would be the "National Planning Framework: Pie in the Sky 2040".

Despite the hype and the fanfare, the Fine Gael plan has almost entirely snubbed County Tipperary. Like Fianna Fáil's national spatial strategy, announced by former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, in 2002, before it, no Tipperary town is earmarked as a growth centre or prioritised for investment or job creation. Every Tipperary town was excluded from the then Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton's regional jobs plan in 2014 as well. Ten other towns were earmarked for advance factories and advance offices, but not a single Tipperary town. Instead, there is a concentration of growth and investment and priority for jobs for Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Galway, Sligo, Athlone, Letterkenny, Drogheda and Dundalk. These are the urban areas favoured for future growth. This means that those towns and cities will have key strategic and economic advantages over all towns in County Tipperary. Put more starkly, Tipperary towns will be systematically discriminated against in the area of growth, job creation and investment. In effect, Limerick, Cork and Waterford, in particular, because they are adjacent to Tipperary, will suck the lifeblood, investment, growth and jobs from the county and this simply has to be changed. Tipperary must get its fair share. It must have at least two towns recognised and prioritised as growth centres.

The motorway status for the N24 roadway has also been ignored in this plan for the umpteenth time. The N24 is a key economic and social driver for the south of the county but it is also substandard and dangerous in many stretches. The county council put forward a realistic plan for the connection of Limerick to Cork, through the N24 to Cahir, on to the M8 and on to Cork giving a saving of €380 million. It was also ignored. Our rail lines are under threat. The Ballybrophy line and the Limerick-Waterford line are under threat on a daily basis. Tipperary town, because of the lack of development of the motorway N24 and bypass, will continue to be choked by thousands of vehicles, including heavy goods vehicles, driving through its main street. There will be no bypass either for Carrick-on-Suir in this plan.

The Fine Gael-lndependent Alliance Government, supported, unfortunately, and propped up by Fianna Fáil, has made a deliberate political choice to discriminate against Tipperary. The plan in reality refers to 179 projects and €40 billion of expenditure already announced, with the rest of it fuzzy, uncosted and with little or no timelines. The expenditure figure of €116 billion is used to give the impression of a significant increase in spending but when population growth and use of gross national income instead of gross domestic product are taken into account, the investment proposed in this plan is at best modest, rising from 2.9% in 2018 to 4.1% in 2027, which is still below the European average.

The much-hyped climate and energy section of the plan will, by the Taoiseach's own admission, miss the EU climate and energy agreed targets by a whopping 60%. The Taoiseach also raised the prospect of new taxes in this area.

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