Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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44. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the steps she will take to prevent the emptying of the west of Ireland and the further over concentration of economic activity and population in Dublin. [4579/17]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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Per capitagrowth in the west is one quarter of what it is in Dublin. Unemployment is almost three times higher along the Border, and in the Minister's constituency, than it is in Dublin. Broadband speeds are 36 times higher in parts of Dublin than they are in parts of the regions where they cannot get broadband. The north-west quarter of the country is without rail or motorway service while Limerick and Cork are connected by a single carriageway. How does the Minister expect to reverse the lopsided growth in the State if we do not address the lopsided infrastructural state of the country?

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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A Programme for a Partnership Government commits to delivering balanced regional development, particularly in the west of Ireland.  Key elements of the Government's strategy to achieve this goal are shared across a number of Departments. However, within my Department, I am progressing a proposal for the development of an Atlantic economic corridor to attract Irish and multinational investment to grow jobs along the western seaboard.

I and my Department officials held a number of meetings towards the end of last year with public bodies and representatives from a group of chambers of commerce from the western region to explore how best to develop the proposal for an Atlantic economic corridor. The chambers group, along with the American Chamber of Commerce, published the initial proposal for the corridor last year.

It is clear from these meetings that there is support for the proposal and I intend to convene a further meeting of the group in the coming weeks to map out the next steps in the process. Any proposals for the development of the western region will be framed in the context of the new national planning framework, which will be prepared this year by the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Simon Coveney. The national planning framework will be a long-term framework for future development and investment, including in the regions and rural Ireland.

Last week, the Government published the first ever comprehensive action plan for rural development, Realising our Rural Potential: Action Plan for Rural Development. This plan will also be of key importance in delivering balanced regional development.  The action plan seeks to make rural Ireland a better place to live, work and conduct business through a series of measures which will be delivered in the short to medium term.  The national planning framework will build on the action plan for rural development, and seek to address longer-term structural issues facing rural Ireland.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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It is important to focus on where we are at now. A national spatial plan that was developed in 2002 is defunct now. We have a lopsided, two-tier economy and a damaging over concentration of population and economic activity in the Dublin area. In Dublin, we have rising house prices, rising rents and a commuter belt currently in gridlock in terms of motorways such as the M50, which affects 100,000 people every day. Dublin is over-heating. It has 38% of the population of the State. By contrast, London has about 13% of the population of Britain. It is likely that Dublin is heading towards a population of 50% of the State under current growth patterns, which would mean that this State would become a city state, with one city and the rest of the island depopulating to service that city. That imbalance helps nobody.

The Minister launched a document last week. We wish her well with it but when we consider the gravity and the magnitude of developments spatially in the past year, it will not do anything to address those issues. What projects of significance will the Government get involved in to address that issue?

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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We are trying to set up the Atlantic economic corridor to bring balance to it.

The reason we are trying to establish it is to compete with Dublin and Cork. The Deputy is correct. At present jobs, population, the price of housing and transport are very serious problems in Dublin. This is why the Minister, Deputy Coveney, has his plan out for consultation. I hope people such as the Deputy, his party and all interested groups in rural Ireland make submissions to the plan because we must balance what is happening in the country. We must look at the skilled workforce and infrastructural assets we have in the regions. The Deputy is quite correct that broadband is a very important issue. This is why the Ministers, Deputies Humphreys and Naughten, are working very strongly and have made major progress on it. It is why we are working with the local authorities to ensure we are ready to roll out broadband. Without broadband we have serious problem in rural Ireland. When I go to public meetings or meet groups, businesses and people who want to invest in the west of Ireland they speak about broadband and it is a big issue. We need everybody working together including all State agencies. This is why I met them recently. This does not involve just one Department as all State agencies must work together.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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I would like the Minister of State to address the following question. How much money does he believe is necessary to develop the Atlantic corridor? What is the ballpark figure? We are not asking for a commitment from the Government, but roughly how much money will be necessary?

The document produced last week by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, stated she seeks to accelerate preparation for the development of broadband, not to accelerate the delivery of broadband but just the preparation for it. Of course broadband is massively problematic. The fact is the Minister cannot give me a guarantee today that all houses in rural areas will have broadband by 2022. This is phenomenal.

With regard to IDA Ireland, in recent years it has delivered well over 60% of its jobs in the Dublin and Cork regions. In the plan launched by the Government last week Cork was dropped from the metric, which now includes only Dublin. This is unusual because what was always measured was the area outside of Dublin and Cork. When I debated this with the former Minister with responsibility for enterprise, he always stated we cannot force foreign direct investment into locations outside of Dublin. The reason they go outside is if they can function there. They can function if they can transport, communicate, employ people and have competitive inputs. They do not have this on the basis of €16 million scattered throughout the country.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, is working with local authorities on broadband. The Minister, Deputy Naughten, has responsibility for it, but the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, is working with the local authorities and I am supporting her to ensure that when broadband is ready to roll out the local authorities will have their job done.

The Deputy asked me a specific question on what it would cost. He and I know that even the Minister for Finance could not cost what is needed. I will give the Deputy something that is there already with regard to funding for regional development. A key support in the region is the European Regional Development Fund, which has €409 million. It is monitored by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. There are also two separate regional operational programmes managed by the Southern Regional Assembly and the Northern and Western Regional Assembly. European money is going into the region. We need further State funding. We need to identify what we want. We need broadband. In certain areas we need the continuation of major road works. I was in Ennis on Sunday and it is great to see the bypass, which will connect Clare to Galway and continue almost into Mayo. We need further investment and money to put in place the infrastructure. If we expect businesses to come to the western region, if they are to compete with Dublin we need to have the infrastructure.