Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will focus on the national planning statements that will be presented to the Minister. We are discussing amendments relating to the provisions in Chapters 3 and 4 of the Bill. My questions specifically concern the regional spatial and economic strategy.

The Northern and Western Regional Assembly released its regional infrastructure tracker just yesterday or the day before. The regional infrastructure tracker for the RSES reveals a challenge. The Northern and Western Regional Assembly covers all the counties west of the Shannon and north up to Cavan, and then there is the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly. In my area there is a growth town like Athlone and two other towns indicated like Ballinasloe and Roscommon town. Athlone crisscrosses two RSES areas and it is an actual growth town. There are only three indicated in the Northern and Western Regional Assembly, NWRA. At a practical level from what I understand both Roscommon County Council and Westmeath County Council have worked together to develop the town. When the Minister is reviewing the national planning statement and looking at the high-level objectives, taking into account the RSES which is based on the census, how does that align if there are differences between one RSES for a particular town and another which is covered by the Northern and Western Regional Assembly? That is my question relating to the Minister's involvement in the national planning statement.

Importantly the framework is linked to the census for a minimum of ten years. The challenge with the high-level information being given in the top part of the national planning statement from the Minister relates to the enormous deficits. The infrastructure tracker refers to Uisce Éireann water infrastructure capacity constraints. It indicates that Galway city has 0% capacity available to meet the requirements of the population increase. I come from a town where I want to see it double. Athlone has about 20,000 people and will move up to about 30,000 people by 2032 which is the timeframe of those regional economic strategies. Galway County Council is at about 20%. Roscommon fares much better at 76% capacity which means that the towns in the county are able to take on an increase. However, there are major challenges relating to infrastructure in rural areas. At a European level, the NWRA is the only region in Ireland that is defined as being in transition.

I appreciate that this is a recent report. It refers to the regional competitiveness index which is done by development stage and index score. The northern and western area, which is a transition region, ranks 218th out of 234 NUTS 2 regions. We rank fairly poorly in this regard. In this national planning statement, not all things are equal across the regional areas. I have heard Senator Chambers talk about the challenges there. We have nearly 18 people working in the NWRA. There needs to be a regional balance and it must take into account that all things are not fair in this world and not all areas are starting from the same base level. We, in the Northern and Western Regional Assembly area, are starting at a significant deficit. When the Minister is reviewing these national planning statements how will the proposals that come from the three be taken into account? There is the national planning stage, the three regional spatial and economic strategies, RSESs, and then approximately 30 area plans as well.

The regional assemblies will ensure the RSESs take into account many of these reports. They do excellent work and are made-up of local public representatives across those counties. The challenge is with the deficit we are dealing with. We are bringing in more people to live and work in the west. Day in, day out I talk about what a wonderful place it is to live in. During campaigning for the local elections, I met many people in their 30s and 40s with families moving back to places like Athlone because they can get work or they can work remotely. They may just need to be in Dublin one or two days a week. In Dublin city centre I met someone from home who travelled up on the train. While some train services have been increased, some basic coach services, including Aircoach, have been taken off. I am calling for a review of the route 20 service, for example, which crisscrosses in travelling from Dublin to Galway. These are infrastructural needs but they crisscross RSES areas. When we indicate a significant need and it crisscrosses like that in Athlone, how is that managed with the Minister's statement?

My last issue is with housing. About four years ago one of the Northern and Western Regional Assembly regional statements indicated that over 95% of housing in that area was at B2 level or below. Obviously that area has a much older cohort. When we talk about development, this is where things like the vacant refurbishment grant comes in. I know we are doing work on retrofitting and so on and we need new housing. We obviously want to see better access to water, water infrastructure and wastewater treatment plants in our towns. How will we have the capacity to expand in the likes of Ballinasloe or Roscommon town when so much of our housing does not even meet the basic need of B2? These are some of the key issues in my area when it comes to planning. When we talk about planning so far ahead, I feel we are so far behind. That is where the Minister's statement looking at development across these regions will be crucial.