As Deputy Jonathan O'Brien is not yet present, I call Deputy Peadar Tóibín.
Topical Issue Debate
Regional Development Policy
At a meeting of the Joint Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs in the past week, we heard that 500 post offices in this State are unsustainable. Teagasc has stated that only 37% of farms are economically viable. Growth per capita in the west is one quarter of what it is in Dublin. Broadband speeds in the regions that have broadband are 36 times slower than they are in Dublin. The north-west quarter of the country is without a rail line or a decent motorway. Where rail transport exists, it is far too slow. The western rail corridor, which should be very important to the Minister of State, Deputy Ring, remains unfinished.
It was recently announced that water would be pumped from the Parteen basin to Dublin. While I have not taken a decision yet on whether this is the right thing to do, my instinctive thought at the time was that instead of pumping all of this water from the Parteen basin to Dublin, why not put the jobs and the growth in Limerick, right beside the water? This is another example of infrastructure being built to service Dublin at a cost to the State.
The problem is that the Government has a scatter gun approach to development. Thankfully, a limited amount of money is being spent in some areas but it is being spent without a plan. There is no spatial plan in existence in this State. The State has been developing in a haphazard, ad hoc fashion for a long time. The national spatial plan has been defunct since 2002 and we are still awaiting the national planning framework. What it boils down to is Governments fire-fighting in respect of infrastructure in a rudderless fashion.
The Minister of State can see this as well as I and I am sure his constituents can feel it. We are living in a lopsided economy. There is a damaging over-concentration of resources, economic activity and jobs in the Dublin area. One need only look at Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland as an example.
In recent years most of the jobs supported by Enterprise Ireland and the Industrial Development Authority have landed in Dublin and Cork. In 2010, 37% of inward investment from the IDA was outside Cork and Dublin. In 2011 that figure was 27%: in 2012 it fell to 23%. The figures have recently improved slightly due to the lack of space in Dublin for new firms. Approximately 60% of inward investment is skewed towards Dublin. Not only is rural Ireland gutted by this rudderless Government but Dublin is overheating. The population of Dublin is approximately 40% that of the State. That is out of kilter with the European norm. Even in Britain, for example, where London is considered too big compared with the rest of the country only approximately 13% of the population lives there. The Government is on its way to drawing 50% of the population to the capital city. That is shockingly dangerous for those who live in and outside the city.
Even though that population lives in and around Dublin there are farms within the M50. Thornton Hall, which the Government owns, is under potatoes yet there are people commuting into Dublin from Cavan, Leitrim and Laois. Where is the sense in that? Schools in the west are shedding pupils. Consider the cost of the new schools the Government is building in the mid-east of the country while schools are withering and dying in the west. Where is the financial logic in that lack of development? That is why I am calling on the Government to focus on a plan of action. There is no plan. The Government is staggering along in a rudderless fashion and the cost is family life, investment and economic activity in the rest of the country.
I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. Responsibility for key elements of the Government's regional development strategy is shared across a number of Departments and State agencies. For instance, the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation oversees the eight regional action plans for jobs, which play a key role in ensuring job growth and enterprise generation across the country. The Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government is responsible for spatial planning and housing and is currently preparing a new national planning framework which will form the basis for future development and investment decisions in the regions. The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport has policy responsibility for transport infrastructure, ports and airport policy. The financial allocations for these and other areas of investment are set out in the capital investment plan to 2021, which was published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
This Government has been very proactive in terms of regional development and it is clear that policies such as the regional action plans for jobs and the work of agencies such as Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and Udarás na Gaeltachta are having a significant positive effect on the development of the regions. This is borne out by the latest employment figures for the regions. In the past year, employment has grown in all regions of the country, not just Dublin, and employment nationally has been growing continuously for 16 quarters. In quarter three of 2016, data from the Central Statistics Office shows that 72% of all jobs created in the past year were created outside Dublin. Unemployment has fallen in all regions. The Government has set a target of creating an extra 200,000 jobs by 2020, with 135,000 of these outside Dublin. The first progress reports for the regional action plans for jobs will be published shortly and they will show the enormously beneficial work being undertaken across the regions to ensure that a supportive environment is in place for the creation of jobs and the cultivation of enterprise.
As part of this process, I understand that the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and Enterprise Ireland are developing proposals for a regional funding initiative which is aimed at supporting projects and activities that assist, sustain and create jobs in the regions.
In terms of capital investment, the national broadband plan constitutes one of the single biggest investments in rural Ireland for generations, perhaps since rural electrification, and it carries the same level of opportunity in terms of the development of the regions. Under the plan, the Government has committed to delivering a high speed broadband network to more than 750,000 premises, covering 100,000 kms of road network and 96% of the land area of the country. The implementation of the national broadband plan will allow communities and businesses in rural areas to compete effectively and realise their full potential.
In advance of the award of contracts for the roll out of the plan next year, my Department is working closely with the local authorities in every county to facilitate the installation of the broadband infrastructure by identifying and overcoming potential barriers to this installation. The local authorities have also identified approximately 400 strategic sites in their administrative areas which would be ideally suited as priority connection points for high speed broadband.
I would also like to highlight the ongoing developmental work currently being undertaken by my Department in respect of the commitment in the programme for Government to explore the idea of an Atlantic economic corridor. I led discussions with key public bodies on this initiative and more recently my Department undertook a round of discussions with the various chambers of commerce in the western region which published a concept document at the start of the year. A further meeting will take place early in the new year with a view to scoping out a work plan to progress this project.
The biggest problem affecting the country into the future is split between too many Departments. The Minister of State's Department covers regional development. The Minister of State has been long enough in this place to know that the decisions lie where the budgets exist. The budget for regional development is not within that Department.
As an example of what is happening to this city, traffic on the M50 is growing at ten times the European average. Commutes are slowing down or grinding to a halt if there is an accident on the motorway at the cost of local business. This makes us uncompetitive for foreign direct investment in the future. Meath is another example. It is a great county with really energetic people yet its role in this confused spatial development is that of a dormitory county. The population is increasing fast, to almost 200,000. More Meath workers leave the county every day to work than stay to work there. We have the longest commute in the State. Rush hour is at a crawl at the Meath-Dublin border which is miles away from Blanchardstown. Navan is the biggest town in the State without a rail line. This Government will likely build an extra lane on the M50 before it will build the 16 km of rail line necessary from Pace to Meath.
In 25 years’ time there will be 9 million living on the island of Ireland. This Government needs to think big, be creative and bold. It should consider some of the work that John Moran has done on this. We need to build a city that has the critical mass to break the gravity that Dublin exerts on growth in the State. We need to follow what the Danes did in Aarhus. Development should not be done with a scattergun effect as happened under the last spatial plan which tried to be everything to everybody. I appeal to the Government to get its act together, centralise resources and decision making and make sure when the population reaches 9 million, half of them are not living in Dublin.
I will not read out the figures for all the areas that have increasing employment. There is no doubt the action plan for jobs worked. We are drawing up an action plan for rural Ireland. The Deputy is speaking my language. In my portfolio it is my job to bring all the State agencies and Departments together and the money must flow with the commitments made in the programme for Government. There are between 60 and 70 commitments for rural Ireland. The biggest single commitment is to broadband. The Deputy was correct to raise that in his opening speech. If we do not have broadband we cannot bring industries into any region.
The Deputy is correct that the money must flow with the action plan we are going to produce. The decision-makers must make decisions now that show that we are serious about creating the infrastructure in rural Ireland, first of all. The Deputy is speaking the same language as I am trying to speak to Government. We must have a plan and that plan must be implemented. Every Department will have to play its part. Every Department will have to be biased towards rural Ireland.
The Deputy is quite correct that we have a serious problem in Dublin. Good luck to Dublin. It is the capital city and there are many people employed and living there. However, at the same time, we want to try to bring people out into the regions.
With regard to the Action Plan for Jobs in the south east and in other parts of the country, there has been an increase in jobs. We need the same kind of target for rural Ireland as we had for the Action Plan for Jobs. To be fair to the Government and the Taoiseach, a Cabinet sub-committee is dealing with actions for rural Ireland. I intend to lead that along with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, to make sure that we get the infrastructure, the funding and the money to flow with the plan.
Traveller Accommodation
I raise this issue because I talked to somebody who had recently spoken to one of the surviving members of the Carrickmines tragedy. We all know the circumstances of what happened on 10 October last year when fire swept through the temporary site and ten lives were lost. The outpouring of grief and shock right across the State was palpable. I thought it would have been a turning point in how the State treats Travellers. Unfortunately, a few short days later we saw the prejudice again rearing its head when a proposal was made to provide a temporary site in Rockville Drive and there were objections from local residents.
We are now in a situation where the surviving members of Carrickmines are heading into a second winter on a temporary site that is virtually a car park with no facilities. I know that the local authority in question has gone through the planning application stage to provide a more permanent site. All the indications are that it will be open in July of next year at the earliest. We have not been given any firm commitments on whether July is the final date and, as far as I am aware, the tender has not even been awarded to a company yet for the construction of that site. Perhaps the Minister of State could correct me if I am wrong on that, but it is my understanding that the tender has gone out but has not been finalised yet.
Individuals were promised more permanent accommodation on the back of the tragedy. That is a matter of fact. They were promised by senior Ministers that their housing needs would be met. They have been told in recent weeks that this is now not going to happen and they will have to wait until next July at the earliest for more permanent dwellings. That is wrong and disgraceful. Commitments were made by members of the Government. Whether they were acting on an individual basis or not, they were representing the Cabinet when they made those promises to the surviving members. Those promises need to be honoured.
I will not get into what the promises were because I do not want to air that publicly, but the Minister knows as well as I do, or she should if she was given the briefing before dealing with this Topical Issue today, that firm commitments were made to some of those families that their housing needs would be met. They have yet to be met. I urge the senior Minister in question, Deputy Simon Coveney, to meet with the families and to discuss their housing needs again. We cannot have a situation where they have to continue to wait for more permanent accommodation while living on a temporary site without even sanitation facilities. It is simply wrong.
I thank Deputy O'Brien for raising this crucial matter and I welcome the opportunity to address the Deputy on it.
Arising from the tragic circumstances at Carrickmines in October 2015 and the loss of so many families and loved ones, a number of actions were implemented in the aftermath of the tragedy, along with ongoing engagement over the past 12 months with the bereaved and those affected by the events at Carrickmines on that night. A steering group, hosted by Southside Traveller Action Group, STAG, was established on 12 October 2015 to manage and oversee the local response to the immediate needs of the families involved. My Department, the Department of Social Protection, the HSE, An Garda Síochána and other agencies are participants in the steering group and are supporting the delivery of actions which have ensured that vital supports such as pastoral care, counselling services and other supports such as exceptional needs payments are provided to the families, as a priority, to meet their immediate needs after the tragic events. The steering group is now assisting with the physical and emotional recovery of those involved which includes the provision of health care and supports for survivors, along with responding to community welfare needs and the clean-up of the damaged site as well as the restoration of infrastructure and public services.
In relation to the accommodation needs, my Department worked with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to identify suitable temporary accommodation for the family concerned in the immediate aftermath of the Carrickmines tragedy. Temporary emergency accommodation has been in place for the family in Ballyogan, Carrickmines, since October 2015. The accommodation provided includes five three-bedroom mobile homes with shower and bathroom facilities, together with a separate utility area for each unit. A site at Glendruid, Shankill, in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown was identified by the local authority in its Traveller accommodation programme for 2014 to 2018 for a group housing scheme to meet the needs of the Connors family. Funding approval was granted by my Department for these works and the refurbishment of the site was completed at the end of 2015. The family, however, indicated that this was not their preferred location. Subsequently, the site was allocated to other Traveller families who requested Traveller-specific accommodation. Following discussions with the family regarding their preferred options, the council proposes to develop a permanent four-bay halting site at Glenamuck Road, Carrickmines, which is in accordance with the local authority’s Traveller accommodation programme. The planning process was completed in July of this year and, following a submission from the council, my Department issued approval to the council to proceed to tender in September. The council anticipates that the accommodation will be ready for occupation by the family in summer 2017.
I do not know if the Minister of State has the information on whether the tender has been signed for the permanent site, which is proposed to be open in July 2017. She can come back to me on that to provide the information on whether that tender has been signed and if we are still on target to meet that date. Could the Minister of State outline some of the remedial works which have been carried out or which are proposed to be carried out on the temporary site on which the families are currently living? It is my understanding that the site is surrounded by a number of large pylons and is rat infested. The conditions are less than adequate, to say the very least. While it is a temporary site, we are now asking the families to spend a minimum of another seven months on that particular site. If there are remedial works that need to be carried out, I ask the Minister of State to contact the local authority to make sure that they are done.
Following the tragedy, issues have been raised about many other sites around the country. In my own constituency of Cork North-Central, there is Spring Lane. I do not know if the Minister of State has ever visited Spring Lane, but it is a tragedy waiting to happen.
The living conditions on that site are the worst I have ever seen in all my years in politics. I saw raw sewage and exposed electrical wires among other things, but very little remedial work has been carried out.
Will the Minister of State outline the initiatives being taken to improve other halting sites? Funding has been allocated but, much to my disgust and that of representatives of the Traveller community, local authorities have handed it back to central government. The money has not been used while members of the Traveller community continue to live in very poor and deplorable conditions.
I do not have answers to some of the specific questions posed by Deputy O'Brien. I have taken note of them and will revert to him as soon as possible.
I thank the Deputy for his comments and observations and assure him that I am committed to ensuring Traveller accommodation needs are met in a safe and suitable manner. As is appropriate in the aftermath of such an appalling tragedy, the audit and improvement of fire safety in local authority provided Traveller accommodation was a critical task undertaken by my Department's national directorate of fire and emergency management. The concluding report, entitled a programme to review and enhance fire safety in local authority provided Traveller accommodation, was published in September 2015. The report enumerated the fire safety measures and actions that were required as well as recommending a series of further actions to sustain fire safety in the long term. My Department continues to work with the local authorities and the national Traveller representative groups to ensure safe and secure accommodation for Travellers is provided in accordance with their preference through a comprehensive local and national collaborative structure.
I have taken a note of some of the issues Deputy O'Brien has raised and I will get back to him as soon as possible.
Youth Services Provision
I thank the Minister for coming to the House to discuss this issue which I have discussed with her privately on several occasions. She understands my passion about improving youth services in County Kildare and the demographic challenges we face.
I thank the Minister for engaging with representatives of Kildare youth services in recent months. She met them in mid-November and also back in June when she was in Kildare town to open the Hive youth hub, a great facility for young people in the town. I hope these meetings and engagements, as well as the discussions I have had with the Minister, have helped to highlight for her the scale of the challenges facing Kildare in providing youth services and helped her to understand the unique position of my county.
Kildare has a growing population as well as an above average youth population. This is coupled with a low level of service provision across the spectrum from essential universal services to specialised services. The Minister witnessed the strong, positive and established inter-agency relationships that exist in the county's children and young peoples' services committee and the local community development committee. This allows us to maximise the impact of available resources and produce tangible results such as the Hive, which the Minister visited.
The group presented a proposal to the Minister setting out the resources required to begin to increase service levels for children, young people and families in Kildare. I wish to focus specifically on three areas: the need for a dedicated youth officer for Kildare, the need to increase the number of family resource centres, and the proposal to buy the Hive building. Kildare shares a youth officer with County Wicklow. The post is funded through the Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board, KWETB. Kildare's population is one of the fastest growing in the State. According to the 2016 census, the population increased by 5.6% compared with the national average of 3.7%. According to the 2011 census, 28.3% of the population in Kildare is aged 17 and under compared with the national average of 25%. I expect that trend to continue and to be reflected in the 2016 census results. Kildare is too big a county, with an above average youth population, not to have its own dedicated youth officer. Will the Minister outline the engagement to date between her Department and KWETB to address impediments to filling such a crucial post?
There are only two family resource centres in the whole county catering for more than 220,000 people. Counties with much lower populations have considerably more family resource centres. Kerry has 12, Donegal has nine and Mayo has seven, but the population in each of those counties is far smaller than that of Kildare. I know from engaging with our family resource centres the value of the work they do. We need more of them in our county.
There is a proposal to buy the Hive building in Kildare town from An Post. This is a cost-effective proposal which would greatly add to youth facilities, not just in the town but in the county as a whole. The Hive provides a youth café and meeting space, services which were not previously available. The plan was to pilot a youth hub for the entire county, and such a venture could operate out of the current space. We need to secure the building to secure and maintain the current provision of services and facilities and to expand them. The inter-agency approach is established in Kildare and a lot more can be done. The purchase of the building is a one-off cost the Department should consider in its budget for 2017.
I thank Deputy Heydon for raising these issues which, as he has said, we have spoken about several times.
My Department provides funding for schemes and programmes to support youth services. These services are for young people throughout the country, including those from disadvantaged communities. An estimated 380,000 young people benefit from this funding. Approximately 1,400 youth work staff work in 477 projects supported by the Government. What is also important is that 40,000 volunteers give their time and expertise to these very valuable projects. Funding of €51 million was provided in 2016 to my Department for these schemes. A sum of €2.6 million in capital funding was also provided in budget 2016 and is being used to support small-scale projects in local youth services such as refurbishment, health and safety fit-outs and accessibility improvements. A sum of €500,405 has been allocated in 2016 for the projects and services under Kildare youth services which operates under Youth Work Ireland. This was an increase of more than €12,000 on the previous year’s allocation. My Department provides funding to Kildare youth services under the special projects for youth scheme for six local youth projects in Athy, Naas, Leixlip, Newbridge, the Curragh and Kildare town and for a youth information centre in Naas. I was delighted to visit and launch the Hive youth hub in Kildare town last June, to which Deputy Heydon referred. As he knows, €50,000 in capital funding was provided towards the cost of developing this youth café facility which offers a safe environment for young people. My Department supports youth work activities at a local level through the local youth club grant scheme. Under this scheme grants are made available to all youth clubs and groups through local education and training boards, ETBs. More than 100 clubs in Kildare and Wicklow received grants under the 2016 scheme. A sum of €93,294 has been allocated to KWETB for this purpose in 2016. As Deputy Heydon outlined, I recently met representatives of Kildare local community development and the children and young people’s services committee for Kildare to discuss their proposals. Officials from my Department also met representatives of Kildare youth services and have visited Kildare to hear about their work and their proposals for providing services in County Kildare. At local level, youth officers of the ETBs have an important support role, on behalf of my Department, to local youth services. They work closely together to address issues that arise for local services. The Deputy will be aware that a number of funding schemes supporting youth services were the subject of a value for money and policy review in 2014. That review involved an in-depth scrutiny of the impact youth service provision has on the lives of young people.
Work on the development of a new funding scheme has been prioritised by my Department. Consultations with youth services continue with a view to introducing the new youth funding programme in line with the review over the coming years. There is one youth officer in post covering Wicklow and Kildare ETB. The officer is active in both counties. My Department has started a mapping exercise with all ETBs as part of a value-for-money exercise. The results of that exercise are due before Christmas, and officials will analyse the results early in 2017. If there is evidence to support the provision of funding for a second youth officer post, this will be considered.
As the Deputy is aware, budget 2017 has provided an additional €5.5 million in current funding to my Department to support the provision of youth services. That funding will be used for programmes that target disadvantaged young people and to assist national youth organisations in their work. In conjunction with national organisations and local services, we are identifying local service development needs for 2017 and will complete that process as soon as possible.
I thank the Minister for her detailed response, her overall interest in the issue and, in particular, its impact in south Kildare.
As a county, Kildare is not fully understood. Its scale, the number of people who live in it, including the number of children and young people, the growth rate and the level of need our county is experiencing is sometimes underestimated. County Kildare faces particular challenges. Historically, we have very low levels of those services across the spectrums I mentioned earlier. Traditional definitions and interpretations of deprivation and the manner in which those apply in resource allocation do not appropriately reflect and respond to the complex needs of our county. In addition, our county's geography poses a challenge for service provision due to the urban and rural mix and its sheer scale.
However, the biggest challenge we have faced in Kildare is the perception of affluence that does not mirror reality in every corner of the county. I ask that the Department would take that on board and help us to expand our family resource provision, purchase the Hive building and get our dedicated youth officer.
On the specific area of youth services, the Minister and the Department must recognise and understand the demographics of our very young population and our historically low service levels and realise that in playing catch-up, we need to do more than just provide for a small increase, as the rest of the county gets a small increase, because the recession hit us hardest due to our levels being low before the recession. When the cuts came, they cut to the bone in Kildare South and there are statistics that point to that.
I look forward to the review in 2017 and to working with the Minister further with a view to getting improved resources into youth services provision in Kildare, south Kildare in particular.
I thank Deputy Heydon. As he rightly identified, the perceptions of County Kildare may be different from the reality. That was certainly made aware to me by the representatives of his county who met with me here and also in the county. I am particularly grateful for that awareness having been raised.
The two key points the Deputy made concern the numbers of young people in the county but also the mixed socioeconomic backgrounds throughout the county as distinct from the more affluent perception of the county. If the mapping exercise I referred to in my initial remarks demonstrates evidence of need both with regard to the numbers of young people and perhaps that mixed socioeconomic demographic, we will have something to work with, specifically in terms of the Deputy's request for the funding of a youth officer for the county. My Department has gone back to the people we spoke with and we are very open to continuing that discussion, particularly with regard to that post. I look forward to continuing that conversation.
That mapping exercise helps us to understand better the requirements for an additional family resource centre as well as capital funding. The Deputy's proposals that came to me indicated a number of other aspects to that which, in my conversations with his people, we went through in a detailed manner. I made some suggestions in terms of how to follow up all of those, but particularly the ones the Deputy has identified.
Rail Network
I thank the Minister for his presence in the Chamber and his engagement on this critical matter of the completion of the second phase of the rail line from Pace to Navan. I also welcome members of the business community from Navan and Athboy who are in the Visitors Gallery viewing proceedings. I sincerely hope to have a positive engagement with the Minister on this issue given his firm commitment and stance on sustainable models of public transport.
In the summer 2010, we saw the recommencement of rail passenger services from the Docklands station in Dublin to Dunboyne, which saw for the first time since 1947 passenger services back in those stations. It was the first phase of a major project to bring the rail line back to Navan. It was a momentous occasion for those of us who travelled on that special train that day as we looked forward to seeing the extension of the line to Navan.
In January 2011, final plans were compiled and the project was ready to move to the rail order stage. That would have seen the 35 km of line being constructed from the M3 railway station at Pace, taking in places like Drumree, the expanding village of Kilmessan and eventually into Navan, with stations at both Navan central and north Navan in Windtown being constructed.
The second phase of the project was anticipated to cost in the region of €550 million and was probably the most significant transport and economic project for Navan in decades. Thousands of people bought homes in Navan in the previous decade in anticipation of that line coming to Navan. Alas, the project was suspended when the new Government came to power in February 2011. What was even worse was the fact that the planning process for the project was not progressed even though the previous Minister had brought it to the point of advancement before leaving office.
The desperate need for that second phase to be completed manifests itself each morning on the congested roads from Meath into Dublin. I know there are huge demands on the Minister from TDs who already have rail services in their counties but who are looking for them to be expanded or retained but Navan is the only town in the greater Dublin area, and of any major capital town in the Leinster region, that does not have a passenger rail service. The negative impact on Meath’s capital town has been hugely significant both from a transport point of view and in terms of quality of life and it has been crippling in terms of our economic development.
There was capital road investment, most notably in the form of the M3. That project was mired in the courts and construction was delayed. However, that project alone does not present a sustainable model of transport because even before they leave the motorway at Blanchardstown, people join the bottleneck of traffic when the road network condenses back into single carriageway traffic the entire way into the city centre. It is brain damaging, and for the National Transport Authority to say it is investing in the bus system in lieu of the rail project being abandoned is no solution either because people are stuck on roads that cannot be extended in width any further.
The town of Navan is hugely important from a regional planning point of view and the huge numbers of people who moved from the city put huge pressures on our physical and social infrastructure. We have made great strides in terms of educational, sporting and cultural infrastructure but the critical piece of infrastructure lacking is the rail line. The fact that it remains off the agenda is severely hampering our county and towns.
Our latest economic strategy from our County Economic Department Plan illustrated that 54% of our population leave Meath each day to go to their place of work. That is some 33,000 people leaving each morning. We have the biggest outbound commuter population of any county in the country. Seventy-six per cent of those people are trying to make their way into the congested city of Dublin. That is a massive 25,000 people, mostly in the 20 to 44 age category. Those statistics provide the compelling evidence for the Minister to take a serious look at this project and breathe new life into it.
Some weeks ago the Minister committed to going to Westmeath with Deputy Willie Penrose to look at the rail situation in his county. I want to extend the same invitation to him now to look at the potential for the extension of the line from Dunboyne to Navan. I hope the Minister will accept that invite and that he will make his way to my home town early in the morning so he can see the choked arteries with the traffic coming in the opposite direction. As someone who has a commitment to sustainable modes of transport I ask that he would right the anomaly of Navan being the only town in the greater Dublin area without a rail passenger service, and complete the line.
I thank Deputy Shane Cassells for raising this matter and for his kind invitation to visit Navan to see what happens there. I hope it will not be too early in the morning because it is quite a long way from where I will be travelling from but I would be happy to accept his invitation. That is my duty as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport when Members take the trouble to come into the House and suggest I come to the town. It is only fair to say to the Deputy that I will come, although I do not know when. The demands of the type the Deputy made - they may be not so compelling but the Deputy made a very good case - are many and the Exchequer is not quite empty but is not full.
In that context, I would be happy to visit but nobody should regard it as a signal that there will necessarily be a rapid follow-through. It is important, however, that I hear the case for it and see the position at first hand. I would be happy to do so and I appreciate the Deputy's invitation.
As Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding of public transport. It is difficult sometimes for people to remember that I do not really interfere on a daily basis in matters relating to which trains run where or at what time. The National Transport Authority, NTA, has responsibility for the development of public transport infrastructure in the greater Dublin area, which includes County Meath, and Iarnród Éireann is responsible for the maintenance and operation of the heavy rail network. Obviously, I have an influence over policy. This matter would come under the heading of policy but the real detail of what goes where is normally a matter for the NTA.
The Navan rail link project was included under the Transport 21 initiative and was to be developed in two phases. Phase 1 of the Dunboyne rail line project involved the reopening of 7.5 km of a railway line running off the Maynooth line - at Clonsilla - to the M3 interchange near Dunboyne. This line opened in September 2010 with park-and-ride facilities, with 1,200 car parking spaces available at Pace and 300 at Dunboyne. Phase 1 was completed in 2013 with the opening of Hansfield Station. The plan for phase 2 involved the extension of the Dunboyne line between Clonsilla and the M3 Parkway Station, and onwards to north Navan. The development of the Dunboyne-Navan line, together with a number of other transport projects, as Deputy Cassells mentioned, was postponed in 2011 due to the economic and fiscal crisis.
The bad news, of which the Deputy will be aware, is that the NTA, which has statutory responsibility for development of public transport in the greater Dublin area, included an examination of the Navan city centre rail corridor in the preparation of its transport strategy for the greater Dublin area for the period 2016 to 2035. The strategy was approved by my predecessor earlier this year. The NTA concluded that, based on current population and employment forecasts, the level of travel demand between Navan, Dunshaughlin and various stations to the city centre is currently insufficient to justify the development of a high-capacity rail link. Instead, it proposes to develop an enhanced bus service along the route and to develop a bus hub in Navan. The good news is that this position will be kept under review, taking account of future developments in the catchment area and the NTA suggests that the corridor identified for a rail link to Navan should be protected from development intrusion. In other words, it is not being ruled out.
The Deputy will also be aware that Exchequer funding for public transport projects over the coming period is already set out in the Government's capital plan. The transport element of the plan covers the period up to 2022. I have previously outlined that my Department's first priority is to ensure the maintenance of our existing transport infrastructure at steady-state levels so that it remains safe and fit for purpose. Based on the funding allocations for public transport under the capital plan, we should achieve steady-state levels by 2020.
In view of the current constraints regarding the availability of funding, the priority for the heavy rail network under the plan is to improve efficiency and maintain safety standards, rather than expanding the network by opening new lines or stations.
If I could interrupt, it seems the Minister might need another two minutes to conclude.
I will complete the reply during my second contribution, if I may.
If the Minister does not mind.
I am particularly glad the Minister mentioned the NTA strategy and its summation in terms of population, etc., and, indeed, on whether the Minister and the Government have roles to play in respect of this matter. They most certainly do have roles to play.
I referred earlier to how the plans would see two stations located in the town, with the final terminal in north Navan. Only a stone's throw away from that station, there is a parcel of land of 51 acres to which a ministerial strategic development zone, SDZ, order is attached. The latter is the reason the north Navan station was going built in that part of the town. This SDZ is designed to cater for 1,400 houses on that parcel of land. That is a significant number of houses by any stretch of the imagination. At present, the infrastructure in the town cannot cater for the near 30,000 people who live there, but here we have a ministerial order that would lead to the construction of 1,400 additional houses.
There are moves afoot. Only three weeks ago, The Irish Times devoted an entire half-page - beautiful maps, aerial photographs and all - to the SDZ and the ministerial order. This parcel of land in north Navan - which is already choked up - is retailing for in the region of €6 million, a knock-down price in current terms. The land in question is located adjacent to where the railway station would be located. Reference was even made to the abandoned railway line in the developers' pitch to potential purchasers. Only last week, a different parcel of land of 44 acres on the Dublin Road side of the town sold for €6 million. Across the river from that parcel of land, one can find another 30 acres for sale at Johnstown. My point is there are nearly 120 acres of land up for sale at present.
My party made a significant submission to the NTA strategy. I was a member of the local authority at the time. Our planners disputed the figures that the NTA used. The then Minister for Transport, Mr. Noel Dempsey, who advanced the matter to a particular point at the time, hotly contested with Iarnród Éireann its contention regarding the figures it was using.
My town cannot cope. It is under pressure and has been identified by Ministers as a location to accommodate strategic housing developments. What I am asking from the Government is that Departments should work with each other. If the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government is identifying landbanks-----
I thank the Deputy.
-----for extensive housing development, it is surely incumbent on the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, given that there is SDZ zoning, to liaise and work closely with the former in order that we do not put more physical and social infrastructural pressure on these key commuter towns.
I thank the Deputy for the follow-up.
The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport should, and does, work with those who are developing land and should keep up to date with the population projections and the building and development in the area in order to be able to adequately provide transport in advance or certainly prepare in advance for those sorts of developments. I take the Deputy's point.
The rail portfolio is not all about closing stations, it is involves developing stations that need to be opened for commuters in Dublin or the greater Dublin area. Those stations might not necessarily produce a profit but they could fulfil the criteria relating to the societal needs and value-for-money considerations that exist.
I do not believe that rail is a mode of transport for the past. It is probably one for the future, if it is developed selectively. I think the rail review, to which I urge the Deputy to make a submission in respect of this hopeful point, will identify where stations should be opened. I do not know whether it will identify closures but we will certainly have a clear picture after the consultation process.
I say this to give the Deputy encouragement. One of the most satisfying aspects of my transport portfolio was highlighted only a couple of weeks ago when the Phoenix Park tunnel reopened. The latter, in turn, facilitated the reopening of a line from Park West in the western part of Dublin to the docklands in order to satisfy commuters' needs, particularly in the context of bringing them across the city. That offers me some hope for the future for areas such as Navan, if they can justify and make compelling cases to bring commuters into the city in circumstances where there is no other viable mode of transport available to them.
On a point of order, can I ask-----
There is no point of order.
-----that the Minister come back to me on his commitment to visit the town? We could have that meeting, perhaps in the county council chambers, with the chief executive. The council chambers are located next door to the old railway station in Navan, which is right in the heart of the town.
I have already said I will do it.
I thank the Minister.
Sitting suspended at 3.30 p.m. and resumed at 4.30 p.m.