Seán Kyne (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State and the review of the national planning framework being legislated for. The 2018 framework provides a basis for review and revision. It allows us to guide and tweak policy, based on the needs of 2025, while at the same time not reinventing the wheel. We need to plan for the million or thereabouts extra people that we will have in the country between now and 2040, never mind those who are already here, who we have to house, employ and care for. This is a very significant challenge. We all accept that growth is guaranteed and that we must manage it. We need to spread it out across the country to create and sustain communities, while at the same time ensuring that our five engines for growth, the five main cities, are able to drive economic development and be centres for innovation and creativity. The framework also recognises the crucial contribution made by rural areas and that they are central to the economic and societal development of the country. Initiatives like the national broadband plan have given a new lease of life to rural communities. Flexible working has provided opportunities for people who live at home to commute one or two days a week, as necessary. This has been a game changer for many communities.

We need to continue the investment in our towns and villages to ensure that they are attractive places to live. The various rural development funds such as the rural and regional development fund, RRDF, have been central to this work and underpin the provisions in this framework. I also welcome the focus on linking the growth centres within the regions, such as Galway to Sligo to Letterkenny and Cork to Limerick, to mention just two. The framework's vision of improved transport links leading to better economic and social outcomes is welcome. It is not new thinking but it is good to see it as part of policy. Turning to the west, the northern and western region is a region in transition. This means it has gone backwards regarding its status within the EU regions. That is not to say that every part of it. One could look at a town like Athenry or at Galway city and argue they have not gone backwards. The region as a whole, however, has. It is disappointing. It now ranks as one of the bottom 20 regions across Europe out of 300 regarding infrastructure and the gap between the northern and western region and our other two regions is actually growing. We are launching this new framework from a poor starting point. It is a challenging task to remedy that situation. We need to discriminate positively towards the northern and western region in terms of policy and resources. It is a sad state of affairs that we have two of the more prosperous regions in the EU and beside them we have an area in transition. That imbalance must be corrected.

Galway serves as the regional capital for the north-western region and involves a movement of people for business, education and health services daily. We simply must improve the transport links north and south. We must upgrade the N17 links within Galway and Sligo. We also must reopen the western rail corridor. We have talked about it for long enough. We need to see action on that very quickly