Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 121: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the timeframe for the delivery of the recently announced Atlantic Gateway development; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30899/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I launched the Atlantic Gateways Initiative in Galway on 14 September as an important development in the continuing implementation of the National Spatial Strategy.

The report explores how the four gateways can become an increasingly interconnected and developed network of co-operating and complementary cities. This can, in turn, enhance the development potential of all four gateways and invigorate development in the hub towns and the wider urban and rural catchment areas. Also, the Atlantic Gateways Initiative is a viable and tangible project to promote the concept of balanced regional development as a fundamental bedrock of future development and investment, which is a central theme of the forthcoming new NDP.

The development potential of the Atlantic Gateways was identified in the National Spatial Strategy, published in 2002. The NSS indicates that complementing the economic performance of Dublin and the East in a national context will depend on expanding the critical mass of gateway cities and combining the powers of attraction of these cities. The Atlantic Gateways Initiative aims to identify how Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford can collaboratively create a critical mass for future economic development as a counter-balance to Dublin and the East.

The initiative was jointly directed by my Department and Shannon Development in co-operation with the relevant regional authorities and private sector participants. The report contains a number of recommended short, medium and longer-term actions to support the initiative running from now up to 2020. These actions are inter-dependent and centre around developing the connectivity between the cities through improved transport links, developing critical mass through the implementation of the development frameworks and mobilising and maintaining public and private sector input.

A key cog in these actions will be the early creation of an Atlantic Gateway Forum to drive and co-ordinate the initiative. The Forum will seek to harness public and private input and will be structured into two interconnected consultative and implementation panels.