Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is a significant change. For the first time we are trying to match our ambition for the way in which the country should develop with €116 billion worth of investment. This is very ambitious. The Acting Chairman and I have sat through many a development plan or strategic plan for the country that did not have a brass ha'penny put in behind it. This time those things are joined together. It is a significant change. It means we are moving away from the developer-led model that has afflicted the city and country for so many years, where we see houses built on a sprawling basis without the matching services coming together. This time we are looking to build a compact city anticipating in advance the services that will be needed to deliver them.

It is not a policy of one for everyone in the audience. It recognises we need to grow particular areas that have the capacity to be strong and regionally vibrant, but it does not leave behind our rural hinterland. It recognises that half of the growth in population has to be entirely outside the major cities, be it Dublin or any of the other four cities.

I represent Dublin, and it is exciting that we are now anticipating not just 140,000 extra homes that will be built but an investment of €7 billion in public transport, with a metro link, BusConnects and extensions of the DART. We anticipate bringing water from the Shannon to provide for our city. We anticipate investments in our ports and airports. We anticipate investment in our cultural institutions to make them a big part of our city. For the first time, we will create a technological university for Dublin, which will be a very exciting applied research college that will offer new opportunities for people.

We have shown huge ambition around apprenticeships, skills and traineeships, concerns that were neglected for too long. Besides that, we are also anticipating major investment in those other colleges that are so important. We are looking at the sustainability of the city, and despite what the Green Party has said, this plan anticipates the decarbonisation of electricity generation. It anticipates moving away from diesel as one of our fuels. It anticipates electric vehicles playing an important part. Most of all, however, it anticipates compact development. To make that a reality, in another first, we will have a national agency with the capacity to put together the tracts of land that will be so important to achieving compact development. Not only will we have the necessary arteries of infrastructure, we will have the capacity to pull those compact tracts of land together and develop them in a sustainable way. There is a lot of fresh thinking here. I was disappointed in the tone of the debate, because this is really important to our city.

The area of health is one about which I know the Acting Chairman, Deputy Broughan, is particularly concerned. For the first time ever, we are planning a new elective-only hospital for Dublin, which makes eminent sense. It will not have an accident and emergency department, and will not contend with the associated impact. We are anticipating moving our three maternity hospitals to a much safer co-location with a general hospital, so that women who are in situations were their lives or health are under threat have access to the full range of services, which is the proper approach. We are building a national forensic hospital up to state-of-the-art conditions, and a national children's hospital. These are really important investments in a city that has suffered from lack of adequate hospital beds to meet our challenges.

Another thing that I find really exciting is that it is very much bottom-up. Some people criticise the idea that there are funds to encourage imaginative solutions for our town centres. It was interesting that in the very same breath as those criticisms, there were calls for imaginative ways to see our town centres grow. What better way than to ask those whose lives, commitment and understanding is rooted in those towns to come up with the ideas, whether urban or rural regeneration is required? That is a very exciting approach to take, because it recognises that we are all part of making this a reality. It is not going to be designed in Marlborough Street or the Custom House. It has to have a community commitment.

I would like to say a few words about the importance of talent in the realisation and conception of this plan. The only way in which we can achieve balanced regional development is on the basis of the quality of the talent that we create. I used to be the Minister at the Department of Enterprise and Employment, and I saw how difficult it is to attract new industrial development unless networks and hubs of skill, talent, enterprise capability and research capacity have been built. That is what attracts and builds, whether overseas investment is coming in or indigenous enterprise is innovating the new products that can drive success, be it in food or engineering. We are seeing those success stories. We need to root them in major investment in the talent base of our regions.

At the heart of this is the concept of developing technological universities. They will become vehicles for carrying a much stronger applied research capability and a much more balanced mix, while still rooted in their origins, namely, developing technical skill. They will be rooted in those origins, but will spread their influence into the higher reaches of education and encourage people to travel that road with them. I believe that those hubs of skill will be very important in realising our ambition for balanced regional development.

Equally, the envisaged investment of €8.4 billion in our school system is crucially important. It represents an investment of about €9,000 for every child in our school system. These investments are really crucial, and not just to meet the needs of a growing population. We must build the school laboratories that allow our children to develop their skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEM, and to apply digital technology within the education system. It is so empowering, both of student and teacher alike, to embed digital technologies in learning.

It also anticipates the PE facilities that we will need. We want to see people grow in a resilient way, both mentally and physically. We need to invest in our schools, invest in their leadership and provide modern facilities. This plan recognises the importance of this investment. That investment in the education sector has not been there in the past. We continue to chase a moving target, trying to keep up with education needs that are racing ahead of us. This plan anticipates the sort of things that the 21st century school will need. It lays the foundations and commits to the funding that will allow that vision to become a reality.

I can fully understand that the House will greet a ten-year plan of great national ambition with a degree of scepticism. I think it is natural that people will complain and ask when they will see these results, or whether the plan is a reality. However, I have been in politics a long time, and I rarely see Governments seeking to plan in any realistic way beyond the next election or the next political hurdle. This is a genuine attempt to do something different. This is anticipating the Ireland that we will see in ten years. God knows how many Governments will be in place between now and then, but it is a genuine attempt to shape and anticipate the Ireland we want to see in 2027 and 2040. How do we go about getting that?

At the root of the plan are the right concepts: make our country compact in its development; make it regionally spread; and make it environmentally sustainable. Build it on a base of talent and fulfil the potential of each young person, each community and each reason. These are the fundamental building blocks of any long-term plan for our country. There will be critics, sceptics and people asking why some concern or other was left out, but the underlying drive of what we are trying to do is unique in my lifetime. The Acting Chairman will agree that it is so frustrating to draw up development plans, knowing in one's heart of hearts that these projects are never going to happen. They are objectives on paper. We now have the chance to match the objectives, worthy as they have always been, with hard cash and commitment. I hope that the plan will commend itself to the House, given time. I am sure there will be short-term political criticism of course, but what we are trying to achieve here is the right thing for the country to do.

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