Seanad debates

Wednesday, 23 February 2005

National Spatial Strategy: Statements.

 

12:00 pm

Photo of Martin ManserghMartin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State and his officials to the House. The national spatial strategy is an important and positive principle, as it is about trying to spread development evenly around the country due to growth pressures in Dublin. Every day we read about projects that cost billions of euro — today it is the outer ring road and last week it was about various public transport schemes in the greater Dublin area. I would not dispute that such investments are necessary, but they are also having the effect of reinforcing concentrations around the Dublin area. It is important to recognise that even a fraction of that level of investment in other regions would make an enormous impact. It is very important that we do not just see infrastructural development that is mainly for the 50 mile radius around Dublin.

I have a certain ambivalence towards the national spatial strategy. My brother was involved in the advisory group on the strategy. He is a local authority official in Cork and helped prepare the strategy. Many people from that perspective believe that too many hubs and gateways were created. I do not come from that point of view. I come from a county which was very annoyed that Clonmel was not designated as a hub. It is a hub regardless of whether the strategy chooses to describe it as such and it is more than a county town. It has a fantastic range of industry and has no difficulty in attracting new industry and new investment. It is probably the largest town outside the 50 mile radius of Dublin that was not included.

We feel grateful for the fact that we live in a market-led economy rather than a planned economy. If we lived in a planned economy, it would be very serious. In our economy, the market will decide to a large extent where it will invest in additional housing, services and so on. The infrastructure improvements in national roads make locations along those roads more attractive in a way that is not reflected in the national spatial strategy. I am happy that the strategy is not overly constraining. It is qualitatively rather similar, but on a much larger scale, to the CLÁR and RAPID programmes. It is a consideration which can be adduced to support investment in particular areas. It clearly is not the only criterion. I am glad that decentralisation was not just concentrated, as some of its critics claimed it should have been, on the hubs and gateways. The term "gateway" makes no sense if all activity is imagined as being stuck under the gate. The term "hub" makes no sense unless there is much activity spread around it.

I support the points made about improving public transport infrastructure. It seems that it is necessary to refurbish existing infrastructure around the main cities to provide commuter and regional public transport services. The arguments Senator Paddy Burke and others made regarding the north west can also be made in relation to the Limerick and Waterford areas. Some steps have been taken in that regard. For example, the Minister, Deputy Roche, referred in depth to the Mallow-Cork-Midleton commuter line.

The effects of the Celtic tiger reached some parts of the country relatively slowly and have only been felt in some places in the past year or two. The announcement of decentralisation had a significant stimulatory effect on private investment in certain places even though the offices in question have yet to open in most cases. Balanced regional development is very important and a great deal of progress has been made in many centres. Many of the main towns in south Tipperary, excluding Clonmel which is already thriving, have taken off in the past year or two in ways in which they did not during earlier periods of growth. This suggests that as congestion increases and costs rise in larger centres, market forces naturally push people to examine locations at the periphery. It is very important to ensure that infrastructural, cultural and sporting investment is made at a level which guarantees the quality of life of people in these areas.

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