Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister. Everyone broadly welcomes the concept of the national spatial strategy. It contains a message to anyone, to Dublin-based Departments, agencies and so on that there is more to Ireland than the greater Dublin area. I am not anti-Dublin in any way. I have lived and worked here most of my working life. The development which has taken place here is wonderful, instead of the shabby genteelness and poverty of 40 years ago that I remember and to which those on my right referred. It is moving up the league table as a vibrant and successful city with many facilities.

Somebody wrote that the 21st century will be the century of the city state and Dublin is our candidate for that status. It is not a question of stopping the development of Dublin but of slowing it down, as much for the sake of the city itself as for the rest of the country. Development and success need to be spread around, not just within a 30 or 40 mile radius of Dublin but to all other parts of the country. It has been mentioned that it can take two and a half hours to commute into Dublin. Those affected by such difficulties should, where possible, avail of public transport. It does not take as long to get into Dublin by train or on a bus that travels along a bus corridor.

One of Ireland's advantages is that it is a reasonably compact country – it is not exactly a square, but it is not too far from it – so it should be possible to implement a successful spatial strategy here. I accept that, in the first instance, the proper emphasis of the spatial strategy is on the Border, midlands and western region because parts of that region have suffered from considerable depopulation. The Minister of State, Deputy Gallagher, will understand the problems of other parts of the country as there is neither a gateway nor a hub in south-west Donegal. On the other hand, his constituency is near Sligo and Letterkenny, both of which are mentioned in the spatial strategy. When I was on the Seanad campaign trail earlier this year, I was struck by the excellence of the road between Sligo and mid-Donegal. A similar standard of road between Tipperary town, Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir would make life much easier.