Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes, the Taoiseach. I welcome the plan's national policy objective No. 2 outlining the regional roles including Drogheda and Dundalk to Newry cross-border where networks will be identified and supported in the relevant regional spatial and economic strategy. I also welcome sections 8.2 to 8.5 of the plan that highlights the importance of the Dublin to Belfast corridor as being the largest economic cluster on the island of Ireland. This point cannot be overstated. In this context I hope that the commitments to improve infrastructure will be followed through. The proposed linkage of a high speed train network between the two capital cities of Ireland in the North and South must be completed. It is important in the North-South context but in the southern context the proposal to extend the DART to Drogheda is equally as important when we consider the pull towards Dublin where many commuters in Meath and Louth will eventually benefit from that as the years go by.

These improvements in infrastructure are imperative if we are to continue to attract inward investment to the region. In late 2017 we welcomed 300 new jobs in Dundalk when the medicine packaging company Wasdell Group committed to opening a new 70,000 sq ft plant. This UK company wishes to retain a presence within the EU. The attraction of that Dublin to Belfast corridor is crucial to our region, which is equidistant to Dublin Airport and to Belfast City Airport and Belfast International Airport. The corridor is important in attracting many people post-Brexit who will just be within a one hour commute from places such as Liverpool and Manchester. That region can be sold in that fashion to get some benefit from Brexit. The eastern corridor is a huge growth area, as a potential from Brexit, and it is imperative that infrastructure is provided, not just road and rail but also housing to accommodate a sustainable population growth that will give people a good quality of life.

Providing this infrastructure will include the provision of proper connectivity with high-speed broadband as a basic requirement. Unless a person had broadband in the last week he or she had no opportunity to even read this plan. It is a disgrace that not one Member of the House has been provided with a hard copy of the document. This flies in the face of talking about the fact that many people in the State do not have a broadband service. As with housing, which I shall address shortly, we can advocate that we will do this, that or the other, yet we cannot solve the broadband, the housing or the health crises in the State. It is no good talking about master plans if we are not going to deliver them. The issue around high-speed broadband certainly reflects the lack of delivery by the Government.

The plan notes that it will be necessary to prepare co-ordinated strategies for Dundalk and Drogheda at regional and town level to ensure that they have the capacity to grow sustainably and to secure investment as key centres on the Drogheda-Dundalk-Newry cross-border network. This is very important and I welcome it. There has been much talk about city status for Drogheda. Members would all love to have city status advocated for many of our towns, including Dundalk, but it is not about a hierarchy. In my constituency it is about having the corridor and working it to its best advantage.

In the North-South context it is important and noted in the framework that the implementation be in tandem with the regional development strategy for Northern Ireland. We need a collaborative approach in developing those opportunities for the eastern Dublin-Belfast corridor.

We also need to protect rural towns and communities and when we consider the plans for the four cities it would appear that there will be a shortfall in funding, which will undoubtedly eat into the majority of the funding leaving larger towns to suffer the deficit. The national policy objective No. 15 is to support the sustainable development of rural areas by encouraging growth and arresting decline in areas that have experienced low population growth. As I have said already while speaking on a Topical Issue recently, I would like to see opportunities for those who for traditional and generational reasons have lived in rural areas and that they are allowed to remain in their local areas and build in their local community. This does not necessarily mean in the village they came from. It is not their fault the villages expanded. If they can show a traditional link to the community they should have an entitlement to aspire to build a house in the countryside.

National policy objective No. 32 is to target the delivery of 550,000 additional households by 2040. Because of this Government’s track record on housing to date, I believe this objective is aspirational rather than achievable. I have said before that an immediate solution to the current housing crisis is to provide for emergency legislation immediately, preventing vulture funds coming in and putting families out of their homes. Before the banks take their opportunity in advance of any legislation for regulation passing through this House, the only way this protection for families can be put in place is for Members to pass emergency legislation making it obligatory, in a very simple and once-off period of time, for the vulture funds and the banks to give first option to the local authorities on the purchases of those distressed loans, at the same price they are being offered to other people. The local authority would get a bargain, the State would get a bargain and people could be left in their houses. I shall give an example of this. Of the 84 compulsory purchase orders, CPOs, that were done, more than 60 were boarded up bank houses. The banks did not contest the CPOs, which shows that such a measure is constitutional; the banks did not challenge the local authority on the CPOs. I have been reliably informed that there are more than 400 such houses spread across the county. We need to take action now, not in three weeks or three months. Now is the time. The local authorities should have first call on purchasing these distressed loan books at the same knock-down price as the vulture funds. This would prevent many people becoming homeless.

I could refer to the lack of a regional hospital that was promised to the region by many Ministers in the past. We did, however, get a sop: the plan includes the Ardee ambulance base, which is welcome.

Louth's motto in its development plans have often spoken of my constituency as being the best place to live, work and grow old in. This saying was stolen by the former Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, when he spoke for the country. That was Louth's motto long before he said it. This should be reflected in any overall planning.

All we want to see is our children growing up, getting a good education, having a nice place to live and aspiring to grow old.

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