Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----as soon as possible. I welcome the opportunity to speak on the mid-term review of the plan. It was announced with much fanfare in 2015 about the period from 2016 to 2021. We are only one year into it. It is probably not really a mid-term review, but a review of the early part of the term. Unfortunately, the announcement in 2015 did not say much. There was much fanfare but unfortunately the substance has not yet been delivered. The Government would like us to believe that it is the saviour of capital investment but, unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. The Government has much spin and so on involved, but we need to look at what is happening on the ground.

Capital expenditure has suffered extensively from austerity, as we know. It was only last year that capital expenditure exceeded the level of 2000 and 2001. Meanwhile, our secondary and minor road network are at breaking point, our national broadband roll-out is faltering and we have a crippling housing crisis. A whooping €4.5 billion in capital, to be fair, has been allocated to housing, yet very little has happened and very little has been delivered. It is true to say that units do not appear overnight and we all understand that, but we need to address it in a speedier fashion. The Government needs to return to building social and affordable housing as it has over many generations, including in many times in the past when we did not have many resources.

There is hardly a debate in this Chamber that does not involve the mention of Brexit. Brexit is certainly very important to be considered in the context of the mid-term capital review. It is one of the most significant geopolitical challenges that we have ever faced. Rural areas, particularly in the Border and midland regions, face very real threats as a result of a potential hard Brexit. While we all wish for there to not be a hard Brexit, it is very hard to reconcile the idea of not being in the customs union and yet wanting to have no border. Everybody says that they want no border, but I think it would be very difficult for us to have no hard border while simultaneously having the UK leave the customs union.

It is fair to say that we have had a two-tier recovery in Ireland and that parts of the country have done better in the last number of years than others. It is vital that both the national planning framework and the capital plan reflect this and help to drive development in the regions. As somebody based in Dublin who was a councillor for many years in Dublin but who has four country grandparents, it is not in Dublin's interests for everything to happen in Dublin. It adds to further congestion and pressure on prices of housing and services generally, including schools, green areas, sports clubs and so on. As many other speakers will allude to better than me, rural areas simultaneously face population decline and it is difficult to maintain services, schools and roads with a falling population.

Capital investment since 2008 has been abysmal and it has not met demographic needs or demands. Over the next decades, Ireland’s population is expected to reach unprecedented levels with some predicting a population of over 8 million by 2040. Fianna Fáil believes that the national planning framework and the capital plan should be integrated better to meet the needs of the country. The Government plans to release the national planning framework and the capital review at the same time. We believe that the national planning framework should provide the overarching objectives for the country and the capital plan should feed into those objectives. Further, we believe there should be a national infrastructure commission that would prioritise major capital investment in the context of the objectives outlined in the national planning framework. This would ensure that all aspects of Government policy go in the same direction. Both the national planning framework and the capital plan must have a balanced regional perspective. This means spreading economic development throughout the country. It is fair to give credit today when the M18 is opening and acknowledge that work is being done. We are more than willing to acknowledge the work that is being done when it is being done but we also point out that we need more.

In Ireland, we have had a two-tier recovery. It is not good for urban areas and it is very poor for rural areas. Rural areas are crying out for fear of their population and it is important that we try to give those areas a lift and to give them the advantages that they need to compete for investment. Of course, one is not necessarily going to get Google, Facebook or eBay in a small rural town, but we need to try to get more employment opportunities outside the greater Dublin area, as well as ensuring that we strengthen Dublin, which I will address in a moment. Commuting and travel times represent one of the most practical and quantifiable measures under which the greater Dublin area can improve its international offering. To reduce congestion in Dublin, metro north and DART underground need to be advanced and prioritised. A brand new town in Clonburris is proposed. It is going through planning at the moment. It is near Clondalkin. Equally, Cherrywood strategic development zone, SDZ, in my former county council area of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown is progressing but major infrastructure is needed to accommodate 8,000 homes, with almost 20,000 people living in both areas. They need to be given the quality of life that they deserve for the 21st century town that we are building. It is a great opportunity but we need to ensure that the required capital investment is there. I mentioned before to the Minister that the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, formerly worked with, Deputy Shane Ross, that the Luas green line is fairly full most of the time at Cherrywood already, and that we are going to put 20,000 people at the end of it. When he was last in here, the Minister said that it could be addressed, but there is nothing concrete.

Page 63 of the capital plan review addresses the Minister of State's former Department. I am not saying this because of Deputy O'Donovan; it is really in reference to the Minister, Deputy Shane Ross. The part on transport, tourism and sport is full of vague aspirations. There is nothing concrete or solid in it. There is about half a page on page 63 about an overall package of measures, "which focuses on areas that are supported by direct Exchequer investment", but nothing concrete about what we are doing or how. We need to face up to the challenges of congestion, not just with regard to quality of life, but the fact that we need to be able to get people to move around efficiently. The Dublin Chamber of Commerce made a very detailed and comprehensive submission to the mid-term review of the capital investment plan. It is over 18 pages. I am sure the Minister of State has had a chance to study it. It talks about a new approach to capital expenditure and Ireland's long-term needs, both for urban and rural Ireland, the short-term investment priorities and so on. I am sure it will be taken into account in the overall production of the mid-term review, but there is a lot of very good stuff in it and I think we need to make sure that we include many of its points because they are very well made.

I saw that Senator O'Donnell was here earlier and he never misses a change to mention the M20 and the proposal for it. I am sure he will mention it if he is back later. It is very important that we connect our second and third largest cities with a quality road network. Broadband is also a huge issue. It is a much bigger issue for areas outside of Dublin than it is in Dublin. The recent withdrawal of SIRO from the tender process further undermines whatever planning we had for the roll-out of broadband.

We should also mention public private partnerships, PPPs. We had Andrew McDowell at the finance committee. He is somebody the Minister of State would be very familiar with. He is the vice-president of the European Investment Bank. He talked about how it had money there, ready to go, but that we had limits on how many PPPs we could have. That is restricting the amount of money available for investment. We need to have more projects. We can look at whether PPPs work. Some work and some did not work so well but the concept should not be thrown out entirely. We must make sure that we have more growth and more ambition. The 10% rule makes it very difficult. Conor O’KeIly of the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, indicated that the use of public private partnerships can lock in exceptionally low interest rates for a long period of time. We also need to look at the Juncker plan and the European Investment Bank, as I mentioned. It is available and willing. Its representatives came into our Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach and said that the funds are there and that we just need to harness them at relatively modest interest rates.

We also have Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, with over €6 billion in foreign investments. Perhaps we could divest ourselves of some of those foreign investments and redirect that money into our own economy. We could then have further improvements in our infrastructure.

There are other issues that we could cover and I am conscious of the time. We need to make sure that the European fiscal rules are adjusted. We should say that productive capital investment is not the same as giving everyone revenue bonuses and so on with regard to current spending. We need to tackle the infrastructure crisis. We need to make sure that we deliver on behalf of all of our citizens and that our country is ready for the population growth we have, for the fact that people are living longer and that our population is growing very significantly. There are difficulties in schools, roads and so on. I welcome the review today. It is timely that we are here. Some progress has been made but we have a lot more to do. We wish the Minister of State the best with it.

The regions and Dublin need very significant investment in the future.