What is this new plan being announced by the Government?
The Government is launching what is calling "Project Ireland 2040" at Institute of Technology, Sligo, on Friday. The Cabinet will hold a special meeting in Sligo to formally sign off on the plan before it is unveiled.
Essentially, "Project Ireland 2040" combines two initiatives the Government has been working on for some time. Tánaiste Simon Coveney, when he was in the Department of Housing, launched what he called a new national planning framework that would lay out where and how the State wants to manage future population growth out to 2040.
Alongside that is the 10-year capital development plan, which will outline where Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe and others want to spend money over the next decade.
So what do both plans hope to do?
The initial intention of the national planning framework was to further develop Ireland's second-tier cities – such as Galway, Cork, Limerick and Waterford – to act as counterweights to Dublin. These cities would act as drivers of growth in surrounding towns and villages.
For the capital, the intention is to increase population density to halt even more urban sprawl into surrounding counties.
To further encourage such intent, the capital development plan will outline a €115 billion investment in the country’s infrastructure over the next 10 years. This is expected to be comprised of €90 billion from the exchequer and €25 billion from commercial, State-owned enterprises.
This will fund new hospitals, schools and educational facilities and transport infrastructure such as better rural roads.
Government figures say that both documents will be of one piece, and that investment will be targeted at projects that will in turn drive population growth. An example is Metro North, the construction of which is hoped will increase the number of homes along its line, which will stretch from Dublin city centre to north of Swords.
Will it be politically controversial?
Hugely so, and there has already been significant horse-trading in Government about what population centres must be earmarked for future growth. Varadkar has said Project Ireland 2040 will not be a repeat of the boom-time national spatial strategy, which designated multiple towns as gateways or hubs for growth. Not every town can become a city, the Taoiseach has said.
However, the political reality is that a government cannot ignore significant areas of the country. That is why towns such as Sligo, Athlone, Dundalk and Drogheda are expected to be designated as growth centres without being granted city status.
Resourceful politicians, however, will make the most of any status. For example, Minister of State for the Office of Public Works Kevin “Boxer” Moran earlier this week announced that he had secured a commitment that Athlone would be “capital of the midlands”, even though this phrase is not expected to feature in the final plan.
How will the Opposition attack the Government on it?
In recent weeks the Government has come under pressure on issues that concern rural Ireland, such as the troubled rollout of the national broadband plan. Fine Gael also suffered at the last general election from a perception that areas outside Dublin had not felt economic recovery.
How “Project Ireland 2040” affects rural Ireland is expected to be main political battleground in the coming weeks.
