Ireland is 'bedeviled by localism'

Ireland could develop a vibrant all-Ireland economy but was "bedeviled by localism" and spreading prosperity to the regions would require more thought, sophistication and political guts, Dr Garret FitzGerald told a conference on urban planning yesterday.

He told the conference, entitled "Metropolitan Corridors - Planning for the Future?", there were "certain minimum standards of investment" in infrastructure necessary to maintain current economic activity.

Dr FitzGerald said it "may be necessary to to assist development so that certain services are installed before they are economically justified" but added the decision on growth nodes would take "strong political decisions and an end to "parish pump" attitudes. He said the 1960s Buchanan Report on spatial development was shelved for fear of loss of votes around towns not nominated as growth centres and he paid tribute to the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, who he said had "tried to make strong political decisions but was bedeviled by localism".

Regional development, he said, would require parliamentarians to have more thought, sophistication and "political guts".

In his address northern businessman Sir George Quigley said the Republic's spatial strategy coupled with a similar strategy in the North, offered a new opportunity to develop two economic corridors based on the east and west coast.

Sir George said centres like Sligo and Athlone could help the west to have the "critical mass" to sustain growth "if people are prepared to travel for up to one hour to get to a job".

But he said the most obvious selection for growth were the emerging cities of Galway. Limerick and Cork.

He added that Belfast's "excellent air and seaports" should have a significant part to play in an all-Ireland economy.

The Dublin City manager, Mr John Fitzgerald, said the main concerns for the Greater Dublin area - a region that included counties Meath, Wicklow and Kildare - were "land use, planning and transportation".

"The time when we have the money will pass, may have begun to pass already and the major fear is a hold-up in public transport," he said.

Mr Fitzgerald said Dublin City Council was convulsed about whether there should be a domestic refuse charge, "because it means votes".

He sympathised with the criticisms of the political system as described by Dr FitzGerald and Mr Dempsey and added: "I know if I was to go looking for a political system, I wouldn't start from here."

The conference, which continues this morning, was held in the Dublin Institute of Technology Bolton Street, in co-operation with the schools of architecture in UCD, Queens University Belfast, the School of the Built Environment in the University of Ulster and the Harvard University School of Design.