A cross-party group of TDs told an assembled crowd of over 350 people that it would fight the Government’s proposed National Planning Framework (NPF) all the way to the Oireachtas.The group is made up of Independent TD for Roscommon Michael Fitzmaurice, Labour TD Alan Kelly, Fianna Fáil TD Éamon Ó Cúiv and Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny, who all spoke at the Hodson Bay Hotel in Athlone, Co Roscommon, on Monday night.
A cross-party group of TDs told an assembled crowd of over 350 people that it would fight the Government’s proposed National Planning Framework (NPF) all the way to the Oireachtas.
The group is made up of Independent TD for Roscommon Michael Fitzmaurice, Labour TD Alan Kelly, Fianna Fáil TD Éamon Ó Cúiv and Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny, who all spoke at the Hodson Bay Hotel in Athlone, Co Roscommon, on Monday night.
They claim the draft plan for the NPF puts too much emphasis on the future of Irish cities at the cost of rural Ireland.
Listen to "TD’s call for NPF revision" on Spreaker.
The draft planning framework under consideration by ministers this week sets a target of 50% population growth in Ireland’s four major cities by 2040, compared with just 15% in rural areas.
“This plan is equally as bad for Dublin as it is for rural areas, this plan isn’t ambitious enough,” Kelly said. “Collectively we are going to fight with the Oireachtas, to ensure that the Government listens to us.”
The meeting began at 8pm and continued well into the night, with a series of concerned citizens taking to the floor to express their concern over the proposed NPF plans.
“We’re not opposed to plans, we want to make them better. It’s not a handout we want – no one ever wants that – it’s a hand up,” Fitzmaurice told the crowd.
One woman said she had “exported” three children, with another with “a foot on the plane”, and was speaking as a mother who just wanted to find a way to provide
jobs to bring her children home.
“I’d like to see some real action happening in the regions where a lot of farming communities have disappeared, and a lot of infrastructure like broadband and better roads are needed. I used to work in England and I came back on one occasion, and our then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said this was no longer an agricultural economy, it was now a technological economy. Our current Taoiseach is of the same view, and it’s an absolute disgrace.”
- John Connolly
“When the first draft came out from the Government, I was really shocked that it was all concentrated on the cities.
“I feel that rural Ireland has been forgotten about in relation to this, we should be bringing the population base to the midlands and the northwestern area of the country, and bringing investment and infrastructure to those regions.”
- Frankie Keenagh
“I heard about this when I was listening to the Marion Finucane Show when they were talking about broadband. It was typical of an urban grouping, but some of the commentators said that you can’t expect to pay for broadband to go to every home in rural Ireland, it would be way too expensive, and yet Dublin is looking to take water off of Westmeath County Council because Irish Water hasn’t worked.”
- Kieran Mannion
Read more
Cities to grow three times faster than countryside under Government plan
’It’s not a hand-out we want, it’s a hand-up’ – rural TDs on Ireland 2040 plan
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