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

I welcome this fund and the legislation being introduced in the House today that will underpin it. When it was announced in the budget in October, it was widely acclaimed in Ireland and internationally. When this Government's term is complete there will be a few things that we will see, in time, as the great legacies of this Government. One of them, in my very subjective but sincere view, is the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act. That is going to change, and is changing, the direction this country is taking for the better. We will be in a better place in a few decades because of that legislation, which was supported by almost everybody in this House. I take particular pride in having chaired the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment and Climate Action that shepherded it through. Another strong legacy of this Government will be this fund that is being established. I commend those who have conceived it and those who are developing the legislation. I also commend the Minister who is here today to present it to us. It will stand the test of time.

It is internationally significant that Ireland is planning for the long term and looking beyond the five-year political cycle. We are saying that we want to protect our environment and to have a counter-cyclical fund so that when the economic times are not as healthy as they are now, there will be finance available to fund critical infrastructural projects. I commend the Minister, the Cabinet and the leaders on prioritising this legislation and on putting aside substantial resources, long into the future, that will see us out of a lot of difficulty in times to come.

Others here will make the case, and have made it already, for changing the scale of the fund, the timeline over which it might be drawn down and other details. The only point I want to make today is that we need to think differently about infrastructure in this country. We need to stop thinking about infrastructure as a solution to the problems we see on a day-to-day basis and start thinking about it in a more strategic way. One of the weaknesses of our country is that we have always decided to build infrastructure because we might see a busy road or an airport that is at capacity.

There are many examples of making infrastructural and spending decisions on that basis. Of course, that doubles down on the direction that the country has been taking up to that point. It makes it harder to change direction.

We need to think, as other countries do, in a more strategic way when we spend money and plan infrastructure. There is an opportunity with this legislation in that it provides for spending on infrastructure in a more balanced, long-term and sensible way. What I mean by that is to build the infrastructure not where the demand is but where we want it to be. If we want to live in the best possible country in 20, 30 or 40 years, we need to be thinking about spending on infrastructure on that basis. I make this case perhaps very parochially. I am a representative of Limerick city and the mid-west and I strongly believe that this country needs a counterweight to the dominance of Dublin and the east coast. I acknowledge I am saying this to a senior Minister from Cork. I genuinely think that we need a counterbalance and the mid-west, including Limerick, Clare and Tipperary, can be the counterweight. We need to be investing in infrastructure accordingly. It is very much about where the demand is not. I would also argue that Cork, Galway and Waterford are cities and regions that should get disproportionate investment in infrastructure. The building up of the regions will create a better Ireland. There should be provision in this Bill to discriminate in favour of the regions.

We have a national planning framework; unfortunately, it is failing and we have to address that. We are way off track. The growth of the capital is accelerating. The intention of the national planning framework is to close the gap between the regions and the capital. We can do that through wise and prudent spending on infrastructure. As Kevin Costner said in the famous film, "If you build it, they will come." That is true. It is a phenomenon known as induced demand. If we build our district heating networks, housing, grid infrastructure, rail infrastructure, roads, hospitals and schools where we want the people to be in 20, 30 or 40 years, we will achieve a much better, more prosperous and more thriving country than if we simply double down on the path we are currently on. We have an opportunity with this fund. It is a very significant fund, running to the tune of €100 billion in the decades ahead, potentially, if I picked that up correctly from the digest. That is such a significant amount of money. We can use it to decide what kind of country we want. It is very much in the capital's interests that the regional cities are built up as well. We have an opportunity to do it. I strongly urge the Minister to make provision for investment in balanced regional development in infrastructure, and to discriminate in favour of the regions in this legislation and in the spending of this fund.

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