Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome. I welcome the renewed focus on the NDP in the title of his role as decided by the Taoiseach in recognition of its importance.

We know that the population of the country will continue to increase, as is projected for in the national planning framework. Some areas will grow faster than others but the national planning framework attempts to direct growth to other areas. For example, 25% of the growth is projected for Dublin, 25% in Galway, Cork, Limerick and Waterford, with 50% in other towns, regional centres and rural areas. It is important to acknowledge that it is not Dublin focused or city focused. While cities are the main drivers of economic development, there is so much more to offer in other areas as well.

We also know that commuting is a necessity in many instances. It may perhaps not be desirable and not something people wish for, but people need to commute outside their immediate area. For example, people might live in Meath, Westmeath or Laois and travel to Dublin. They deserve good quality services in those areas.

It could be argued that full employment is being taken for granted at the moment. We have effectively a worker shortage in many key sectors. Of course, as the Minister knows and as everyone here knows, it was not always thus. In the years from 2008 to 2012, we had serious unemployment. We had unemployment during the Covid pandemic but thankfully that was temporary and the economy rebounded. We had endemic unemployment in the 1950s, 1970s and 1980s. I hope we will never go back to that level of unemployment, but it is something we always need to be aware of. Regarding competitiveness and the globalisation of direct investment we need to be wary and conscious, as I know the Minister and his Government colleagues are, of the needs and issues they have.

Of course, the housing situation is serious and through Housing for All we need to continue the focus on that to ensure we can continue to ramp up the construction of houses.

We obviously have our climate obligations. The NDP has made increased allocations for cycling, greenways, and rail investment. Last week, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, was with us presenting his plans for that. Roads cannot and should not be ignored because they are important as economic drivers. It is not just about getting people from A to B faster, but is also about safety. As was true in the past, many of our secondary roads would benefit greatly from improvement works providing safety, driveability and a better driver experience. That is not just for cars but also for buses and HGVs. They also play a significant role in regional balanced development.

We have a number of challenges particularly with planning. We have had issues with An Bord Pleanála for some time. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is looking at reinvigoration of the board, its renaming and other changes. Some local authorities, including mine in Galway, have particular issues with the work pressures on planners because they cannot get planners. If they are planners, they cannot get them to work in Galway. There has been chronic underfunding for a number of decades.

The Minister mentioned the changes to the contracts to address inflation for new contracts and tenders. For example, the fixed price period was reduced to 24 months. I wonder if that is enough with costs increasing so fast.The demand for construction workers is critical to the delivery of Project Ireland 2040. I know the Minister, Deputy Harris, is conscious of that in terms of apprenticeships and the models he is running. Demand for engineers is a worldwide issue and an eye needs to be kept on it. Population growth is both a challenge and a positive because we need workers to fill the critical posts, whether in healthcare or hospitality, to name just two areas.

Regional differences are a challenge. I mention particularly the NUTS 2 GDP figures regarding the per capitaranking of the 242 EU regions, which are quite stark. In 2018, the northern and western region was 114th in the ranking. In 2019, it was 136th, whereas the eastern and midlands was more positive at 14th in 2008 and fourth in 2019. The southern region went from 37th in 2008 to second in 2019. This clearly shows improvements in the southern, eastern and midlands regions but not in the northern and western region. We must be conscious of that and reverse that change. There are many positives, such as EU membership, a strong economy, full employment, effectively, a stable political system, which I hope continues into the future, and a strong educational sector, which is hugely important. If you talk to multinationals, they always comment on the exceptional standards in education in this country, the pipeline and the involvement and engagement of technical universities with businesses in deciding and running courses employers need.

The Minister also mentioned the public spending code, which is under review, as he said. I raised a question with the Secretary General of the Department of Health, Mr. Robert Watt, on 7 December, regarding projects. We are talking about health but it could be any project. Staying with health, I asked him, if a project was identified and if the Secretary General, the Minister, the Taoiseach or the Cabinet decided a project is needed, for example, the delivery of 100 beds, how quickly could things be fast-tracked through the public spending code. He commented - it is on the record - that if it was something that was identified, etc., it could be fast-tracked to within six and nine months. That could obviously not be done for every project but for certain projects it could. It is something the Minister could examine in driving key projects. As I said, they cannot all be done and must still go through the planning process and the delays therein. I also highlight the importance of the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, and rural regeneration and development fund, RRDF, for rural Ireland. They have been important for rural and urban Ireland for key projects that fell outside the scope of all other funding streams in the past.

Another challenge we face is that the key building blocks for any town and village are water and wastewater. Too many towns still have inadequate systems. Without them, there will be no development. There is a housing challenge and crisis, if you like, some areas cannot be part of the solution until they get wastewater infrastructure. It is vital that Irish Water is funded to equip those towns and villages which otherwise have capacity and land that may be built on, but need that basic building block.