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

I move amendment No. 23:

In page 20, between lines 20 and 21, to insert the following: “ “Limerick-Shannon metropolitan area transport strategy” means the strategy which sets out the framework for the delivery of the transport system of the Limerick-Shannon metropolitan area;”.

We had this discussion on Committee Stage and I want to have it again with the Minister of State. It merits further discussion. I will not be pressing these amendments, but I submitted them out of a real and genuine concern that by not providing specifically for the Limerick-Shannon metropolitan area transport strategy in this legislation, we weaken the strategy, this Bill and potentially Limerick. For me, LSMATS, as we call it, is an incredibly exciting plan for our city and county and I can safely say, for the mid-west region. It includes a rail link to Shannon Airport. It has provision for new train stations in Moyross, near my home, as well as in Dooradoyle, Ballysimon, Lisnagry, Mungret and Adare. It is genuinely very exciting for our part of the country. It is much more than a transport strategy; it is a development plan for metropolitan Limerick, extending into south-east Clare. There is currently a real misalignment between the transport strategy for the Limerick-Shannon area and the development plans for south-east Clare and Limerick city environs as well. It is a fundamental misalignment. The two documents should speak to each other and they do not.

These amendments are about giving the directly-elected mayor the mandate, the power and indeed the responsibility to pursue delivery of the Limerick-Shannon metropolitan area transport strategy. I understand the Minister of State will not accept these amendments, but he will appreciate the spirit in which they are made because he agrees on the importance of getting our transport strategy right. It is more than simply a transport strategy as it is a development strategy for a fast-growing, thriving, prosperous mid-west region. It would be wrong to narrow it to Limerick as it is really about what I spoke about earlier, namely, providing a counterbalance to the development of the eastern region, which has been at the expense of not just the mid-west, but the southern region, the western region and the north-western region as well. That is why the Limerick-Shannon metropolitan area transport strategy is so fundamentally important and I would like to see it baked into this legislation.

If the Minister of State is minded to look at it again with respect to a Seanad amendment I would certainly appreciate that. If not, we should look to this for the review in three years' time because we must have alignment of the transport strategy of the development plans and we must give the directly-elected mayor the power, the mandate and the responsibility to pursue these as well.

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