Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, to the House and wish him, the Minister for Finance and the Government well with this plan. As Senator Boyhan said, the key point is that this plan should be delivered and timeframes should be set for projects and those timeframes should be met.

This plan has been in gestation for a considerable period. It started in October 2014. Various bodies and groups throughout the length and breadth of the country made a considerable input to the plan. It started in October 2014 with the publication of the national planning framework map. Preliminary stakeholder consultation events were held. Several inputs in terms of Oireachtas briefings were made. Nearly every facet of society in the country ranging from the Oireachtas to business to non-governmental organisations had a say in this plan. I spoke about this plan at our parliamentary party meetings on a number of occasions. The Taoiseach said that he hoped to have it launched before Christmas. We had a further discussion on it at our parliamentary party meeting in January and we secured the inclusion of additional provisions in it. It is a very good plan. For the first time during my time in politics, in nearly 40 years, we have a plan that is being funded. We have had several plans down the years but no funding was put in place for them. Timeframes are bing set and funding is being put in place for this plan for the next ten years, which I welcome.

I also like another aspect of this plan, namely, some of the key facts and figures that are given. I am a member of the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and the Taoiseach and I and the Acting Chairman, who is also a member of that committee, have the met the ESRI in Paris on a number of occasions. The ESRI is one of the best organisations that I have-----