Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Covid-19 and Brexit have served to bring to the forefront the need to address the stark regional imbalance and overpopulation of Dublin and our major cities. We must provide the infrastructure necessary to enable people to live and work in rural Ireland. The fact is that the criteria used for cost-benefit analyses on major projects mitigates against investment in regions. I ask the Taoiseach and the Government to change this. Investment decisions must be guided by clear strategic objectives, giving weight to factors that can bring transformational change. We must achieve greater transparency in how decisions are taken. Departments must work effectively and efficiently together in congruence with local communities to achieve faster and better outcomes.

We need to move away from decisions being made by audit companies that do not have skin in the game. Relying wholly on analysis from auditors which use narrow monetary measures, often based on population rather than the requirement for transformational change, impedes potential growth. There are often benefits to projects that require capital investment that can only be monetised with difficulty, if at all. Too often, these projects are dismissed at an early stage in the appraisal process or are delayed for years or even decades. We have a legal requirement to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. There are great opportunities for growth in the green economy along the western seaboard to meet these climate obligations.

We must maximise on the potential of the Atlantic economic corridor with sustainable investment in the western rail corridor, the strategic development zone at Knock airport, roads such as the R312, the A5 and the A26 and other vital infrastructure. Covid has taught us that we cannot continue with business as usual. I ask the Taoiseach to change the criteria for the cost-benefit analysis.

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