NATIONAL PLANNING FRAMEWORK MUST BE RADICAL TO REBALANCE IRELAND
Labour spokesperson on Housing, Planning and Local Government, Jan O’Sullivan has called on citizens to engage with the National Planning Framework to ensure a good and sustainable future for Ireland.
“The National Planning Framework announced today must be radical if it is to make the difference needed to enable cities in the rest of the country to drive growth and development to balance the scale of Dublin and the surrounding commuter belt.
“Soundings coming from Government this week that the M20 connecting Cork and Limerick may be put on the long finger in the revised capital plan ring alarm bells that joined-up thinking is urgently needed.
“For the aims of the plan to work (and the last 2 from Fianna Fáil-led Governments’ Plans failed miserably) cities will have to be able to provide the jobs, infrastructure and homes to grow significantly in size with a projected national population growth of at least half a million people in the next 20 years. Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford, and a small number of other centres of population outside the Dublin region simply have to take this on. I believe they are up for it.
“The idea, however, that a new road between our 2nd and 3rd cities would not be on top of the priority transportation list is alarming. Not only would it facilitate growth and connectivity between Cork and Limerick but would also link the South to the West more speedily.
“Balanced development is as important to Dublin and the over-burdened surrounding counties as it is to the rest of Ireland.
“I welcome the publication of the National Planning Framework and urge citizens to engage with it. Getting the final plan right matters. It can provide the foundation for a good and sustainable future for Ireland.”