North west jobs and regional development
Deputy Scanlon cited weak employment growth in the north west and asked about regional recovery commitments. The Taoiseach said the plan was out for consultation and argued for realistic spatial planning rather than repeating past mistakes.
The Western Development Commission recently issued a report on employment in the north west over the period 2011-16. The increase in the north west was 2.2%, compared with 11% nationally. During questions on promised legislation last week, Deputy McLoughlin stated that the Action Plan for Jobs in the north west was not working, something we have been saying for some time. The Taoiseach stated, "It will be a priority of Government in the months and years ahead to ensure that those parts of the country where the recovery has been slow will experience an acceleration in their recovery." I respectfully ask the Taoiseach to have a look at the national planning framework document for 2020 to 2040, which proposes five major economic zones, namely, Dublin, Galway, Limerick, Waterford and Cork. There is nothing above the line from Dublin to Galway and no mention of Carrick-on-Shannon, Sligo, Donegal or Letterkenny. The plan is flawed. We do not want a fancy plan but balanced regional development where the north west has an equal chance of producing jobs.
Comment on this
It is out for public consultation. Letterkenny, which is twinned with Derry, is indeed north of the Galway-Dublin line, as the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will know. We want to avoid a repeat of the pointless, disastrous, unnecessary and useless national spatial strategy we had with Fianna Fáil in office. It started off quite well, with a number of growth centres and cities, but turned out to include 20 or 30 across the country and became a joke. That is not spatial planning at all.
It is not a realistic objective to turn every town in Ireland into a city, it is neither realistic nor good planning and we will not produce such a plan.
It is encouraging that unemployment has fallen in every county in Ireland. The number of jobs in every county has increased, but it is uneven and it is not merely a case of greater Dublin versus the rest of the country. It is much more uneven than people might think, for instance, there has been a large increase in employment in County Monaghan but not as much in County Sligo, as the Deputy is aware. The game-changer for Sligo will not be a planning framework but investment in very necessary infrastructure, particularly the N4 to connect that growing town to the motorway and road network, and also broadband. I anticipate these are the kinds of things that will be in the ten year capital plan.