Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support my colleague Senator Tim Lombard in his call for the reorganisation of local authorities in the Cork area. I know he has served on Cork County Council, but I have served on Cork City Council. I believe there is a need for a comprehensive review of the areas covered by local authorities. There has been a debate on whether there should be just one local authority or whether we should leave it as it is but with a larger area for the city. A review was conducted by the five people appointed, but the process did not bring people together. This is an extremely important matter for the region. More than 550,000 people live in Cork county and city. It is a huge area that needs proper planning and, thus, we need a proper local authority structure.

We need to deal with some major issues. For instance, new port facilities have been developed at Ringaskiddy, but we need road infrastructure to be put in place. On the northern side of Cork city, we need a new northern ring road on the outskirts so that more urban development can take place.

In terms of the overall national context, the growth of Dublin city is a problem. We need to identify three or four key hubs for major growth that will be located outside of Dublin. I am talking about the south, the west, the north west and the south east. We also need to make sure we have a long-term comprehensive strategy and that it is not done on a piecemeal basis. In the southern area, in Cork, we must ensure we have a local authority structure that can deal with future planning in a comprehensive and long-term manner. I ask the Leader to invite the relevant Minister to come to the House to outline how he will reform local authorities in Cork city and county. It is important that we do not make the same mistakes that were made 12 and 18 months ago.