Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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6. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will be taking a role in the development of the new national spatial strategy. [31135/16]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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This State is in a state of spatial crisis. Services are being closed down on the western side of our country and rebuilt on the eastern seaboard. There is an overconcentration of economic activity and limited resources in a small space on the east coast, which is depopulating much of the west coast and causing bottlenecks in infrastructure on the east coast. What will the Minister do, through the spatial strategy, to address this issue?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The development of a new national planning framework, NPF, is being led by my colleague, the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government. A roadmap, approved by Government and published in December 2015, outlines the arrangements for the preparation of the NPF, which includes the establishment of a dedicated work team in the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, whose work will be overseen by a high-level cross-Departmental steering group, supported by appropriate public consultation and stakeholder engagement arrangements. I understand that it is the Minister's intention that effective consultation will ensure the NPF is built from the ground up, while at the same time taking account of strategic realities at national level.

As Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, I welcome this important initiative and I look forward to contributing to it, including by way of my Department's input as a member of the NPF cross-departmental steering group.

As a contributor to the development of a new NPF, my Department has many shared and complementary objectives that will be considered during the process as part of the whole-of-government approach being adopted.

Indeed, a number of high level initiatives are currently underway within my Department which are relevant to the development of the NPF and will provide significant cross-over potential. These include the development of programmes under my Department's new regional and rural development brief, the National Landscape Strategy for Ireland 2015-2025, my Department's built and natural heritage fiscal and capital investment programmes, the ongoing implementation of the Government policy on architecture and the proposed development of a new national heritage plan.

Finally, my understanding is that rural Ireland will be addressed as part of a NPF issues and options paper, which will include a section entitled "A place-based strategy for rural Ireland".

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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I suppose when this Department was created there was a hope that it would be for real, that regional development and rural affairs would be taken seriously by this Department. It is clear this Department is a hollow husk, that in the end of the day the Department is almost an elaborate press statement to pretend to the people that the Government is doing something on this issue.

For example, the national broadband plan to provide broadband to rural areas for regional development was won by the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Denis Naughten, in the interdepartmental battles. I also have a problem with the fact that in some parts of the west there are dozens of schools which have the same number of junior infants joining them at the start of the year as one school would have in the greater Dublin area meaning that schools are being closed in the west and rebuilt in the east at a cost to the State. For example, there was a bad accident on the M50 this morning at 8.30 a.m. - I hope everybody involved is okay. Six or seven miles into County Meath, there were commuters stuck in major traffic jams two hours later such is the crisis of infrastructural deficit on the east coast while much of the west is going fallow. A number of local authorities and a number of leadership organisations have told me that they have heard nothing about the national spatial plan. There is no ground-up grassroots element involved.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I understand. I am from rural Ireland, the same as Deputy Tóibín, as are the Ministers of State, Deputies Kyne and Ring. We are committed to rural Ireland and I can assure Deputy Tóibín of that. Rural Ireland will be addressed as part of an issues and option paper, which will include a section entitled, "A place-based strategy for rural Ireland".

This comes back to the need for joined-up thinking and cross-Government co-operation on rural Ireland. In this regard, I will be bringing forward the action plan for rural development later this year. The action plan will cover the three-year period 2016 to 2019 and will be structured around the following themes: supporting sustainable communities, creating and sustaining enterprise and employment, fostering culture and creativity in rural Ireland, building on rural tourism and recreational opportunities and improving rural infrastructure and connectivity. The action plan will act as an overarching structure for the implementation of Government initiatives which have the potential to benefit rural Ireland.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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My heart goes out to the Minister to a certain extent. If Deputy Humphreys does not have the budget to deal with these issues, unfortunately, all the joined-up thinking in the world is not worth a damn.

The level of capital investment in this State is one of the lowest anywhere in Europe. With regards to the €6 billion that is going on roads between 2016 and 2021, 75% of that is going on maintenance only. Roads that are needed right across the west are just not going to be built. As far as the €3.6 billion earmarked for public transport is concerned, more than half of that will go on the extension of the DART railway. For example, the residents of Navan in County Meath will not see the railway being brought from Pace out to Navan or different railways being built around the country.

I ask the Minister to think seriously about disruptive investment. We have a particular trend happening which has been facilitated by a directionless spatial plan. To fix that, the Minister needs to ensure the spatial plan comes out by the end of the year and that it has the necessary funds to build the infrastructure so the people will stay in the western seaboard and others will go and join them.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I encourage the Minister to include in her contribution on the national planning framework a look at land use strategy. In that regard, the potential exists to meet the objectives the Minister set in terms of employment and sustainable communities, to look at radical proposals taking both Coillte lands and Bord na Móna lands at scale and managing them in a different way, separating the parks and wildlife functions within her Department so that we massively extend the definition of parks and how we use land in that way. It is a different role to the wildlife regulatory function. By taking such radical steps in terms of how we use land, we can develop tourism, food, energy and other industries in rural Ireland. We need that sort of radical land use change as part of this planning framework.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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To answer Deputy Tóibín's question, we have allocated funding within our budget to rural Ireland. We have a €12 million town and village enhancement programme. I am getting very positive feedback from local authorities and from individuals from communities right across the country. We launched €10 million in funding this year and they are working extremely hard to put together good applications to get funding to support projects that will make a difference in their rural communities. Deputy Tóibín will be aware, as I am, that there is nothing better than communities and those at local level making decisions that can impact beneficially on their area.

In relation to Deputy Eamon Ryan's question, there is an increasing recognition that the protection and presentation of our natural heritage is necessary for continued economic expansion, regional and rural development as well as for increasing quality of life.

I welcome the focus on the role of our natural resources and cultural assets proposed by the outline of a national planning framework, in particular, the proposed linkages to policies designed to protect and promote our built and natural heritage. Indeed, I accept what Deputy Eamon Ryan is saying, that we need to look at our landscape, and at our bogs. The bogs are a tremendous asset that is unique to this country. It is about developing those assets in a positive way.