Real challenge is regional imbalance

The statement by the Government yesterday that almost half the population is aware of the National Development Plan, and that…

The statement by the Government yesterday that almost half the population is aware of the National Development Plan, and that three-quarters believe a national plan is a good idea, is hardly surprising. But the survey which delivered this information does not address the real issue: is the plan tackling regional imbalance, as it was intended to do?

Since the plan, covering the years 2000-06, was launched in November 1999, the Government has travelled as a body to "information sessions" in Ball aghaderreen, Waterford and Cork, holding high-profile Cabinet meetings and emphasising the targets of "balanced regional development".

The NDP logo has begun to appear on buses and DART carriages in Dublin; on buses in Limerick, Cork, Galway and Waterford; on Iarnrod Eireann trains; and on signs at every motorway construction site and new waste-water scheme in the State.

Yesterday, the National Development Plan logo adorned an advertisement in this newspaper for the construction of two dwellings at Passage West, Co Cork, for a State body. Speaking in Government Buildings, the Minister of State for Finance, Mr Martin Cullen, said that the branding of even the smallest developments helped to create "local ownership" of the plan.

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However, given that much of what is now branded as National Development Plan 2000-2006 was largely planned, designed, constructed and financed outside this period - such as the recently opened Southern Cross motorway in Dublin - it is hard not to form the impression that a sleight of hand is being performed.

Certainly, if all the signs with NDP logos were to be added up, history would record that 200006 must have been an incredibly busy period. But in this case history would be wrong - the Southern Cross, for example, was 30 years in planning and about five years in construction, only two of which come under the period of the NDP.

Given this generous extension of NDP logos, it is perhaps not surprising that perception of the plan is high among the population. But yesterday's briefing was about just that: perception.

It comes less than a month after the Western Development Commission warned the Government of worsening regional imbalance, regardless of the National Plan.

Specifically, it stated that access to and within the region was slow, due to poor road and rail systems; the ageing electricity transmission network could not provide enough power to new high-energy industries; and the telecommunications infrastructure was patchy, costly and beset with difficulties.

Yesterday's research showed, perhaps not surprisingly, that most support for public/private partnerships to upgrade electricity, roads and broadband communications came from the population in the west. Yet the Western Development Commission report has already pointed out that State contracts to roll out infrastructure have been refused by communications companies because they are not commercially viable.

The Western Development Commission had hoped to open a debate on the effectiveness of the National Plan, but after yesterday's report it is hard not to imagine that the Government is more concerned with recognition of its logos.