Vol. 537 No. 3
91 Cecilia Keaveney asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government his views on the need for a proactive approach to the provision of infrastructure and infrastructural development in peripheral regions to enable them attain a level of competitiveness that would be in the true spirit of a national spatial strategy and a national development plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14548/01]
The national development plan, NDP, provides for a total investment of £24 billion in infrastructure through the economic and social infrastructure. On a per capita basis, the investment involved will amount to £7,658 in the BMW region and £6,566 in the southern and eastern region. This planned investment in infrastructure is the largest ever undertaken by the State and represents an average annual increase of 55% over 1999 levels; it demonstrates the Government's proactive approach and commitment to upgrading the country's infrastructure.
A key objective of the NDP is to promote more balanced regional development. The accelerated infrastructure programmes of the NDP will address infrastructural deficits and bottlenecks throughout the country and provide the capacity for future growth. The national spatial strategy, to be finalised by end 2001, will address the promotion of more balanced regional development on a broader basis, with due regard to improving quality of life, maintaining and enhancing our natural and cultural heritage and sustaining economic development. Of particular importance among the issues which the strategy must address are identifying ways in which the potential of every region throughout the country can be developed; improving North-South co-ordination and co-operation on regional development and spatial planning issues; mechanisms for better integration of different sectoral policies; the role of energy and technology; urban growth patterns; the future of rural areas; linkages between urban and rural areas and the need for special policies on coastal zones and other high amenity areas. The spatial strategy will provide a framework within which future decisions on public investment, including investment in infrastructure, can be made in the context of the measures needed to achieve more balanced regional development.
