Madam, - Tim O'Brien's article of January 23rd on the National Development Plan was headed: "Many targets in the first plan not achieved on time or on budget". So why should people believe that this second plan will be achieved any better or more efficiently?
People know this new plan will not work because of the blatant disregard of the National Spatial Strategy by elected councillors when they zone lands unnecessarily for residential and commercial development.The only jobs driving the economy are those in the building industry, so the new plan copperfastens the reality that we will get more and more of the same. . . unsustainable development and longer commuting times.
We are on a merry go round and we can't get off! - Yours, etc,
EVELYN CAWLEY, Upper Kindlestown, Delgany, Co Wicklow.
Madam, - As you rightly point out in your Editorial of January 24th on the National Development Plan, it was the intention of the previous plan to invest so that the western region "would benefit disproportionately" and catch up with the south and east, but that did not happen. For this reason, the Western Development Commission, though welcoming the strong commitment to balanced regional development, wants to see delivery. The plan acknowledges, on page 60, that output in the Southern and Eastern region increased by 67 per cent between 1998 and 2003 whereas in the BMW region the increase was just 56 per cent, thereby increasing the disparity between the regions. The new NDP must address this imbalance. It may be the last chance to do so in a generation, as it is unlikely that we will have such favourable economic and demographic circumstances again.
Poor transport access is still limiting growth in the west and north-west. However, national roads investment for the first four years of this NDP will actually be undertaking work that should have been completed in the last plan. It is only then that work on the Atlantic Road Corridor will become a priority. This corridor, which will extend from Letterkenny to Sligo, Galway, Cork and Waterford, thereby connecting the regional gateways and enabling further growth in the regions, will act as a much needed counterbalance to the greater Dublin area.
Infrastructural investments that increase the competitiveness of weaker areas stimulate local growth. But they also help to rebalance existing growth patterns and ease pressures on the east coast. In a nutshell, if the BMW region gets all its necessary funding it will, ironically, be good news for the greater Dublin area. - Yours, etc,
GILLIAN BUCKLEY,CEO, Western Development Commission, Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon.
Madam, - Your excellent coverage of the National Development Plan highlighted once again a serious problem for those of us who seek to represent the Dublin region. In the media coverage - and more importantly in the plan itself - the region as a place in its own right was left short.
Despite being the largest centre of population on the island and the engine-room of the economy, Dublin is not seen as, or represented as, a region. Once again therefore, inadvertently perhaps, the need for a reformed system of local government with a powerful Dublin regional assembly and a directly elected mayor for all Dublin has been demonstrated. It is long past time that Dublin took a stand for Dublin. - Yours, etc,
Cllr DERMOT LACEY, Beech Hill Drive, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.