Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have always believed in indicative planning. From the time of T.K. Whitaker in the 1950s and the years of Seán Lemass, having objectives for a nation is important even if some or many of those objectives are not achieved, as happened with the last plan from 2002. The scale of Ireland's infrastructure deficit is vast. There was no reference by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to their roles in Ireland's lost decade, when Ireland did not have a plan and when we cut back on the infrastructure we had.

For many years since the 2007-08 disastrous banking crisis I raised the issue of the deficit at the budget and finance committees. The capital programme had been slashed and was so low that we did not even reach depreciation levels, which is the 2% level that is needed just to keep a bit of paint on the house and the doors working. It seems extraordinary that the Taoiseach, who is one of the key people responsible for this deficit, is now trying to present Fine Gael and himself as great capital planners.

The damage that was done in the last ten years, however, will long affect and hold back the State, urban and rural. In an earlier contribution the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, tried his best but I believe that many people see this plan as an election manifesto of aspirational dreams. The Taoiseach is trying to sell it as a national project. The fundamental conclusion of most of us who ploughed through the national planning framework and then Ireland 2040 - Our Plan is that the aspirations are there, with €116 billion set to be dedicated to the plan, but we have grave concerns that many of the projects that should have been achieved in the last decade are still not going to be achieved over the next decade, especially in areas such as housing and health. Deputies have already referred to this. The great unknown, of course, is what will happen with Brexit. If GDP, or GNI, is significantly damaged then it may be very difficult to allocate 4% or more, which is outlined at the start of the national development plan, for capital projects each year up to 2027.

I opposed decentralisation and the longtime core policy of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil of holding back and restricting Dublin’s development as a major city region and the development of the other cities in Ireland. I totally agree with the plan's focus on Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. I had expected more ambitious infrastructure targets for each major city. I agree with the designation of Sligo, Letterkenny and Athlone. Drogheda should have had full city status.

In budget after budget Dublin was neglected very badly. Professor Declan Kiberd has said that Dublin is a city dominated by a periphery. When every other city from Athens to Madrid and up to Oslo was enhancing its capital or main cities with great public transport systems and major public facilities, Dublin became something of a backwater up to the turn of this century. Lord Norman Foster, the famous so-called "starchitect", rightly says that premier city regions are always defined by their infrastructure; first class transport, health, education, public housing and so on. Unfortunately, by that measure Dublin has never been allowed - by majorities in this House - to become a premier European capital city and we sometimes hear of the disappointment of visitors about the lack of transport and civic space infrastructure in Dublin.

I agree with the plan's approach to concentrate development in major growth centres throughout the State. I note the demographic predictions for an extra 1 million people. For some time EUROSTAT has said that Ireland will have a population of 5.5 million by 2050 and that the UK will have a population of more than 80 million. Depending on the outcome of Brexit there may be a significant migration between Britain and Ireland. It will be interesting to see if the 2050 figure may even be higher.

Ireland continues to be an emigration nation. Had the disasters of the 1980s and of the banking crisis not happened, Ireland's population would probably be well past the 5 million mark in the Republic and heading back to the population of Ireland at the start of the 1840s.

I am aware that the State is divided into three regions to facilitate EU investment but what is wrong with just using Leinster, Munster and Connacht and with the three northern counties in close liaison with the counties of Ulster? Leinster’s population is now around 2.4 million with the four Dublin counties heading for 1.5 million. As a Dublin representative I would like to see one of the tasks of this plan being to consolidate and expand the Dublin city region up to 2027 and 2040 as a premier metropolitan district for the whole country.

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