Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State and his team for the work they have done to develop Town Centre First. It is a very good policy and is going to be critical in driving development across Ireland for many decades to come. It is going to be a very positive and sustainable development. I am minded to think of Éamon de Valera's words from 1943 in his famous speech, the "comely maidens dancing at the crossroads" speech. It was the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Gaelic League and de Valera expressed in the speech a vision of Ireland. I will not read from it in depth but will take a bit from it. De Valera foresaw: "a land whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villages would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the contest of athletic youths and the laughter of happy maidens, whose firesides would be forums for the wisdom of serene old age." This romantic and idealised vision, probably infused with a zeal of nationalism as Ireland was coming out of its struggle for independence, was a destructive vision. It informed thinking and policy for the next half-century or more. Perhaps it still does. I would like to think that with this policy we are putting to bed that vision of a poor, agrarian and isolationist Ireland. This policy represents a very positive, strong and progressive vision for the Ireland for the future.

I thought of de Valera's "comely maidens dancing at the crossroads" but what has actually happened in this country might be described in Frank McDonald and James Nix's book Chaos at the Crossroads. It was written 15 years ago during the height of the Celtic tiger when we were building ghost estates all over the country and one-off houses here, there and everywhere. I encourage everybody to read it. Chaos at the Crossroadsdescribed the destructive planning policies of the previous half-century that led to the decline and dereliction of towns and villages and the closure of post offices, schools, banks, Garda stations and pubs - you name it. Towns and villages all over the country went into serious decline. This policy is the way to turn that around and it is not happening before time.

The economic impact of poor planning and the vision that was pursued for such a long time was matched by a significant social impact. We exported our young people. We sent them to all corners of the world. There was a brain drain in Ireland like in no other country in the developed world. It led to a conservatism, a resistance to change and a closed-mindedness in rural Ireland that has not served us well. Ultimately, it drove a race to the bottom. It led to the lopsided development of the country whereby the east coast took primacy. The unwritten "All roads lead to Dublin" policy that Dublin must be a city of scale and everywhere else was a regional backwater is informed by that flawed vision. That thinking still exists and we must tackle it head on. Though our national planning framework is good and speaks about compact growth it needs to be reviewed. We need to be serious about balanced regional development. I refer to the idea our capital city will grow by 30% within the next two decades, despite how large it already is. Even if the growth of the regional cities is much faster because they are coming from so far behind, we are still going to be left with that lopsided development.

The policies of the past have led to serious costs in servicing rural Ireland. We have the longest road network in Europe per capita. We cannot provide public transport. My colleague Deputy Bruton knows much about broadband and how difficult and expensive it is to roll out due to the nature of our settlements and our development. The cost of our sewage, electricity and water networks and the difficulty in providing these services are linked to the poor planning and vision of the past.

This policy represents hope we will change things and rebalance Ireland. There are positive post-pandemic indications that remote working is being embraced. We are seeing people moving back to rural Ireland and that is absolutely positive. We must encourage them to move into towns and villages. We must make towns and villages attractive places to live and places where young people and young families will want to live. That is our fundamental challenge. The role of Government is to manage that challenge as best it can and this policy is a very good start. We can reverse the vicious cycle of decline and turn it into a virtuous cycle of prosperity.

How much time do I have, a Cheann Comhairle?

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