Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The State has been rudderless for the past 16 years. It has had no development plan whatever. The absence of a plan, combined with the Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil policy of no investment, has led to the sloppy, haphazard urban sprawl which radiates from Dublin into towns located in south Ulster and Connaught. It has emptied swathes of the country. Even the Minister's county has suffered greatly from the damage caused by lack of investment in recent years.

The proposed increased investment over the next five years is only marginally ahead of the rate of inflation in the construction industry. Looked at in the context of the increased population in the same period, the result of this plan will lead to, at best, the economy standing still over the next five years. The major problem I have with it is that everything is back-ended towards the latter part of the period of the plan. It is nuts to do that for a 20 year policy. It is cynical for the Government to say it will do most of the development for the country in 20 years' time when few of them will be left in the Chamber never mind in government.

I will speak briefly about my own county. Every Deputy will plead the best case for his or her county believing that he or she has good reason to do so. Meath is absolutely different. Meath is at the bottom of almost every single investment criteria in the State. It is a proud and great county but the level of funding going into Meath is incredible. Meath has the lowest number of gardaí per capita,receives some of the lowest amounts for roads, its rents are continually among the highest, Meath County Council has the lowest income per capita, the lowest staff per capitaand the lowest level of business rates. It has one of the lowest levels of mental health investments and has the lowest investment in children's services per capita.

When they woke up this morning, most workers who live in Meath left the county in order to get to their places of employment. That does not happen in any other county. Meath people commute more and further than their counterparts in any other county. The list of metrics is endless. This situation must change. However, there is no change in this national development plan in which the Government has given Meath the clippings of tin when it comes to investment. This Government has assigned Meath the role of a dormitory or commuter county except without providing people with the means of commuting. One of the most glaring and damaging omissions from the plan is the absence of any mention of a Navan to Dublin rail line. Navan is the biggest town in the country which does not have a rail line. Families are hammered with three and four-hour commutes daily, and are obliged to shoulder all the financial and family costs to which that gives rise. We are talking about a 34 km extension, promised for significantly over 25 years, which would service one of the fastest growing population areas in the country. The Government now tells us that the 250,000 living in the Meath area is not sufficient for a rail line to go to the centre of the county. That is hokum. The rail line was included in development plans long before the population grew to its current level. The Department's own website clearly states that Fine Gael mothballed this project due to the reduction in Exchequer capital investment in the programmes. The one thing Meath has plenty of is Ministers but they are about as useful as mudguards on a tortoise.

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