[ireland.com] Report urges development outside east coast

Navan Junction

ireland.com, 14.09.2006

Action is needed to ensure Ireland's Atlantic seaboard is not left behind by the continuing expansion of Dublin and the East Coast, a new report on regional development has warned.

According to the report of the Atlantic Gateways project, the cities of Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford should work together to act as a counterbalance to Dublin's growth.

The report finds that the combined economies of these four urban centres only slightly smaller than that of the Greater Dublin Area.

But it warns that "decisive steps" will be need to ensure Ireland is not dominated by the Greater Dublin Area in the coming decades.

Creating an Atlantic corridor in addition to that on the East Coast would, the report says, create "a wider range of areas on the island where economic opportunity, services and environmental quality are to the highest standards."

The report, which was published in Galway today by Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government Dick Roche, concludes that early delivery of improved transport links as outlined in the Government's Transport 21 strategy, will be the key to success for the Atlantic Gateways project.

"The report is further evidence of the value of the National Spatial Strategy as a framework for public and private organisations coming together to help achieve more balanced regional development," Mr Roche said.

Achieving critical mass along the West and South coasts would "ensure better and more sustainable economic development in the Atlantic cities and their hinterlands," the Minister said.

The Atlantic Gateways project was founded as part of the Government's National Spatial Strategy (NSS) to foster co-operation between these four cities and aid regional development.

It is being undertaken in partnership between the Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government, the relevant Regional Authorities and Shannon Development.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2006/0914/breaking44.htm

Transport21 Fan

Navan Junction wrote:

ireland.com, 14.09.2006

According to the report of the Atlantic Gateways project, the cities of Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford should work together to act as a counterbalance to Dublin's growth.

What, no Mayo! Oh dear, the local Manulla Opus Dei branch are not going to be happy about this. They'll be finiding Mayterdom Videos in Bangor Erris.

I can see the Western Development Commisions press release now. "Kiltimagh Space Port Must Be Built to Prevent Mass Starvation"

road_high

My two cents....
God no more of this anti-east stuff. We need infrastructure all over the country, even more so in the east.
Also Waterford city is more less on the east/south east coast with little in common with the other more western cities. It could easily be developed as a natural counter to Dublin on the same side of the country i.e. Waterford's port seems a viable alternative for freight etc instead of Dublin, all is needed is the proper road link between it and Dublin.

westtip

It depends what they mean by "development" for the west of Ireland - where I live development seems to be defined as building houses - which no one then lives in and may be occupied 2 or 3 weeks of the year and areas of the West are left with ghost towns for the rest of the year.

In many respects the west doesn't help itself. For example in tourism. The Highlands and Islands of Scotland have seen a tourist boom in the past few years since the opening up of land with the right to roam. This does not mean people are roaming willy nilly across the highlands, they tend to follow defined and well marked footpaths across the hills, and walking tourists respect the countryside. The Scottish Tourist Board actively encourages walking tourists, and they are flocking to Scotland.

What happens in Ireland. In extremis Walkers get threatened with shotguns. In reality walkers buy guide books which fail to mention the barbed wire and signs saying no trespassers walkers not welcome all over the West. The walking tourism industry has virtually vanished in the West of Ireland.

Of course, allowing people to walk across the countryside and up a mountain with signs and paths helping people on their way is only a small part of recognising what the west has to offer, as a place to visit, live in and enjoy. Trying to mirror the planning and "development" of the East is not what is needed. East and West need to balance each other not rival each other.

Slice

mfitzy: God no more of this anti-east stuff.

That's not a fair comment at all to put it mildly. Unbalanced development is as much against the interest of people living in the Greater Dublin Area as it is everyone else in the country. Amongst other things it simply means more people commuting greater distances to get to work in Dublin. This is a huge issue and it's totally related to unbalanced development yet no one sees the connection.

To give an example it's about how all roads lead to Dublin to the detriment of everywhere else - why was a motorway built to Limerick that gave preference to travel between Dublin-Limerick with marginal time-saving incentives for Cork-Limerick travel when both could have been accommodated? Why was an airport built at Knock instead of the development of Galway or Sligo Airports (I believe everyone knows the answer to that one so no need for an answer)? Why is it that up until recently trains services on Limerick-Rosslare were not publicised on the Irish Rail website and why are there no printed timetables for Ennis-Limerick?

Development in the West is treated with an "as seen from Dublin" attitude, which doesn't benefit Dublin and doesn't benefit the West. But then again, I'm sure to suggest anything otherwise would be considered money snatched for the construction of Luas or some other such thing when it isn't. It's just that money currently spent on the West is money wasted because of the way it's used.

Schuhart

I don’t think the essential issue here is the East-West one, but I do feel moved to make just one point on that.

Slice wrote:

Why was an airport built at Knock instead of the development of Galway or Sligo Airports

slice wrote:

Development in the West is treated with an "as seen from Dublin" attitude

I don’t think these two statements add up. The reason much of the money currently spent on the West is wasted has a lot to do with the way local politics work, which means that every parish expects its little bauble. Hence, you have airports at Knock, Sligo and Galway (and Donegal for that matter) when one is surely enough. Equally, the Western political outlook never seems to accept the essential reality that concentration is essential for development. There’s simply no point in having your airport in Knock, your third level college in Castlebar, your FAS training centre in Ballina and so forth. But Western advocacy pretends this kind of 'something for everyone in the audience' approach is feasible.

I think the significance of the plan announced, if it actually comes to amount to anything, is a final acknowledgement that the National Spatial Strategy was flawed by the inclusion of locations like Athlone, Castlebar and Letterkenny that simply have nothing to contribute to a meaningful regional development strategy. If there is any hope of creating an alternative centre to Dublin, it will be from the four regional cities. With Cork and Waterford in the picture, it’s a mislabelling to even regard this as an East West thing. What it is, or could be, is the basis for a workable regional development strategy.

However Claremorris, Mullingar, Nenagh, Letterkenny, Monaghan and more will jump on the bandwagon that this vision excludes them. They will paint their opposition in anti-Dublin terms to make it seem like their local advocacy is directed at the hated East, which will make the regional cities slow to act against an agenda that actually undermines them and not Dublin. When, inevitably, Sligo politicians bleat they should be included in any vision, Galway, Limerick, Cork and Waterford politicians need to finally recognise that threat and defend the only workable regional development strategy.

But they probably won’t. They’ll just join in the ‘Dublin’ mantra, and another opportunity will be lost.

westtip

Schuhart wrote:

airports at Knock, Sligo and Galway (and Donegal for that matter) when one is surely enough. Equally, the Western political outlook never seems to accept the essential reality that concentration is essential for development..

Agreed - I live half way between Knock and Sligo Airport - Why do I need a choice of flights to Dublin from Aer Aran everyday - I don't - Sligo will be well linked to Knock when the N17 is upgraded as will Galway. Donegal I think is an exceptional case - a bit like the highlands and islands of Scotland - there is a need to recognise some degree of support and subvention for these kind of areas (eg the aran islands - no airport would probably mean no population living there)

Critical mass is the essential point about development - and a good transport (inevitably road) to these centres of development.

It's a similar situation with hospital services, take for example the furore over Monaghan hospital - Taking the N2 and N53 from Monaghan is about 25 miles - make this stretch of road dual carriageway and it brings Dundalk hospital within 20 minutes of Monaghan (accepted that in an emergency to get to A+E you driving at 70mph on dual carriageway is acceptable.) I doubt if most people in Dublin can get to an A+E within twenty minutes. Where I live it takes 45 minutes to drive to Sligo Hospital or about the same to Castlebar - So should I be campaigning for a full state of the art hospital in our nearest town, Ballina - no of course not, but I would argue that the N59 from Ballina - Sligo needs improving and the N26 Ballina Boholla needs to be completed asap and that Ballina needs a by-pass. I hear people crying out if you don't have access to a car what do you do - the answer to this is simple - a heavily subidised and regular bus service from somewhere like Monaghan to Dundalk hospital should do the trick. It is just a matter of viewing the subsidised bus service as essential because it costs less than having a full state of the art hospital on everyones doorstep, or evn having some kind of subsidised "hospital taxi minibus" service always available to take patients from Monaghan to Dundalk on a continuous basis - employing three minibuses going backwards and forwards continuously between Monaghan and Dundalk would cost considerabley less than maintaining a hospital in Monaghan.

I may have gone a little off the east-west thing here but just trying to show its not distance you are from services such as airports, hospitals or places of work - its how easy and how much time it takes to get to these services and avail of them.

Slice

I didn't mean to say the reason is purely Dublin-centric. It's definitely the case that the situation isn't helped by how incredibly parochial politics is in this country. Maybe it's too idealistic to expect central Government to put national interests over local interests.

In fact it could come down to the reality that local authorities in this country have very little power over local planning and development compared to Britain for example. I'm not advocating council tax or a first-past-the-post way of voting. However, what council taxes in Britain do is allow local authorities greater autonomy in local planning decisions, decisions which over here get vetoed by central Government (for a myriad of reasons) because central Government control local authority budgets. So say under the British system Galway city council wanted to develop an Athenry rail commuter service it can do so with it's own budget in the interest of Galway (not the interest of Galway as viewed from Dublin) without having to justify it to central Government in order to get the funding; a central Government which may otherwise be concerned with the knock on effect of neighbouring constituencies that are looking for a re-opening of the WRC and see investment in a Galway-Athenry commuter service as happening to the detriment of a WRC. This sort of thing coupled with a first-pass-the-post voting system which doesn't favour independent candidates keeps local issues out of the national agenda.

I'm sure there's some way of keeping local issues off the Irish national agenda without reverting to either council taxes or first-past-the-post voting but I haven't come across anything yet...

Schuhart

Slice wrote:

In fact it could come down to the reality that local authorities in this country have very little power over local planning and development compared to Britain for example.

I agree with you here that we need to see real decentralisation – by which I mean giving local authorities decision making powers, not combusting large amount of money shifting office staff about instead of doing something useful with it.

But to be honest, I don’t think there’s any way of delegating real authority without local taxes coming into play. Even if you work it on the basis of central government paying a capitation rate to local authorities, you’ll find local councils engineering things so as to make the capitation rate seem too small to meet needs – ‘we are absolutely at full stretch and cannot provide any of these badly needed services without extra funds’.

The present system encourages negative political dynamics in several ways. Because funding is coming from central government, regional groups engage in advocacy rather than strategy. Hence, you get plenty of banging on about something like the Western Rail Corridor, surely the prime example of a project no-one would support if they had to pay for it. If people are spending their own locally raised money, you’d hope they’d be more careful about making sure it actually yields some benefit.

Another benefit of decentralising decision making is Dublin would be freed from a problem it has suffered from for a long time. There is an incredible political reluctance to invest money in Dublin until the need becomes critical, because of the negative reaction from the regions to any such investment. A Dublin regional authority with revenue raising powers could just built an integrated transport system without having to worry about the political fallout of people in Charlestown demanding a Luas too.

westtip

Schuhart wrote:

I agree with you here that we need to see real decentralisation – by which I mean giving local authorities decision making powers, not combusting large amount of money shifting office staff about instead of doing something useful with it.

But to be honest, I don’t think there’s any way of delegating real authority without local taxes coming into play. Even if you work it on the basis of central government paying a capitation rate to local authorities, you’ll find local councils engineering things so as to make the capitation rate seem too small to meet needs – ‘we are absolutely at full stretch and cannot provide any of these badly needed services without extra funds’..

without tax raising powers any government is meaningless - all our local authorities do is squeeze businesses, with business rates. They pass planning permissions for housing estates and apartments - not in many cases to satisfy housing need but they use planning permissions as a revenue stream, getting (substantial) development fees for every house and apartment given permission for. No party will have the courage to stand up and say what jack Lynch did all those years ago abolishing rates was a complete disaster for local government and the accountability of local governance. Of course there should be a local property tax, which local governments should be accountable for, people might take a bit more interest in the performance of councils and councillors if their funding was more visible. No political party has yet stood up and said the whole of local government in Ireland needs a radical shake up and review of how it operates, how it is funded and what it is accountable for.

Slice

Schuhart: There is an incredible political reluctance to invest money in Dublin until the need becomes critical, because of the negative reaction from the regions

I'm not sure I agree with this. I think the slow rate of investment and development in Dublin is more to do with the degree to which the media and the posse of Tom, Dick and Harry commentators scrutinise Government decisions. These decisions are then modified in a way that's ill conceived and not true to the original factors informing the original decision. This is usually down to political consideration or, depending at how you look at it; political cowardice given that media scrutiny in the first place is usually ill informed.

What I see happen in Dublin is a study is commissioned about a particular issue. This study may be comprehensive in which case the problem occurs where political or other reasons cause the Government to act differently to what was recommended in the study (such as ill informed media analysis or other interests). This in turn causes media scrutiny for the reasons behind the change of mind. Governments then want to appear to be doing something about the issue by commissioning a further study instead of taking action since that action is under question, even in cases where numerous studies have been completed before. The big problem is that these studies are inevitably going to throw up different suggestions and recommendations for any number of reasons; because they have different briefs, are conducted at different times, commissioned by different departments from different consultants etc. Giving rise to more questions; Why are the two/or more studies recommending different things? Is the difference in recommendation motivated by political convenience and does that reflect in any of the briefs for any of the studies? And so on...

A case in point is the Luas; by how long was the completion of Luas delayed and at what cost when the Government decided to take the Green line underground to St Stephen's Green? This wasn't outlined in the original recommendation for Luas so of course questions were asked. Was this decision fuelled by people such as Garrett Fitzgerald who insisted that the Luas would not be able to travel round the main entrance to Trinity College at College Green even though original proposals didn't raise this point because it was simply not true? Instead of acting on the original plans the Government gave in to political sensitivities, commissioned another study to look at this point specifically, which went with the original recommendation of an overground link. The procrastination got so ridiculous that eventually Luas was built, but minus a city centre link between the two lines.

Other times I think the problem is that studies are commissioned with an inherently biased slant; whoever commissioned the study into the Dublin Port Tunnel are invariable biased in favour of the tunnel given the fact that it was never considered whether or not it would simply make more sense to just move the port outside of the city centre and I'm sure at some stage in the distant future this will be required.

In relation to Dublin I just think the Government does not have the courage of its convictions and that's the main problem.

Schuhart

Slice wrote:

In relation to Dublin I just think the Government does not have the courage of its convictions and that's the main problem.

I'm not sure this really catches the way or the extent to which proposals related to Dublin are cited in regional debates.

As we know, Luas is only two disconnected tram lines and bears no relationship to what the city needs to have a transport infrastructure comparable to equivalent cities. Yet some regional commentators cite it almost as if Dublin had received some incredible benefit, making whatever parochial featherbedding they wish to adovocate seem like a mere bagatelle.

Even following the debates here you will see this mentality. I can recall a recent poster on the subject of the proposed buyout of the Westlink toll bridge saying that he felt the correct response of voters in the regions to such an idea should be 'do it, and I won't vote for you'. Leaving aside the rights and wrongs of that specific proposal, the mentality that any expenditure on the capital was begrudable is a part of our political life.

Dublin would gain a lot from real decentralisation, and the ability to mobilise its own resources to do what needs to be done.

westtip

Schuhart wrote:

I'm not sure this really catches the way or the extent to which proposals related to Dublin are cited in regional debates.


Even following the debates here you will see this mentality. I can recall a recent poster on the subject of the proposed buyout of the Westlink toll bridge saying that he felt the correct response of voters in the regions to such an idea should be 'do it, and I won't vote for you'. Leaving aside the rights and wrongs of that specific proposal, the mentality that any expenditure on the capital was begrudable is a part of our political life.

.

I write from the West and to this particular proposal would applaud it - because the Westlink is a national issue, dublin having a good transport infrastructure is a national issue. We have a dublin centric economy for good reason - in todays world Dublin provides the critical mass a country of this size needs, but eqaully Dublin needs to be well connected to the rest of the country. We don't all elect to live in Dublin - but we all need to see Dublin function better, for all our sakes.

Chris_533976

Decentralisation will happen once the interurbans are done, once the Limerick - Galway railway is reopened and once a bit of faffing about is stopped.

Until then, no chance