Ireland 2040: Government defend plan branded a ‘marketing exercise’

The Government’s grand plan for the future of the country has been branded little more than a “marketing exercise” with most of its promises and a third of its funding previously announced.

The Taoiseach is under fire over Project Ireland 2040 which the opposition has claimed contains 179 projects that have already been published. However, the Taoiseach and ministers quickly moved to defend the framework last night, strongly denying it is simply an election manifesto.

The plan contains significant transport, housing, health and education projects for the next generation as well as a blueprint to rebalance growth between rural and urban areas.

Key proposals include a second runway at Dublin Airport and regional airport investments as well as the Metro for Dublin and Luas lines, including in Cork.

Over €7bn will go on national and regional roads while rural and urban areas will get €3bn in funds.

In health, 2,600 acute hospital beds are also promised as are 10 new hospitals over the next decade.

Some €22bn has also been allocated for climate change, while there are also promises to build 110,000 social houses over 10 years.

A €500m innovation fund for start-up companies and the new M20 between Limerick and Cork are among the promises. The Government also hopes to prioritise growth in towns, such as Sligo and Athlone.

Responding to the Government’s €116bn two-decade plan, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said “this is a very cynical exercise” and that the project is effectively about the launch of the Government’s “next election manifesto” at the taxpayer’s expense.

Noting the fact his own party believes at least 179 of Project Ireland 2040’s initiatives have already been announced, including €40bn of the €116bn earmarked, Mr Martin said “there is the element of the political wheeze in this, so you’ll forgive me for being a bit cynical”.

But Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe defended the plan stating: “We already have a set of commitments that we have made to communities and citizens all over the country as a result of the last two budgets.

“If I had stood up today and excluded those commitments, the same opposition would be lambasting us for breaking our word to our citizens, of course we are honouring the commitment that we already have but for many years beyond that we are honouring new commitments, outlining new things that we want to do.”

Asked to provide 10 tangible and costed projects that were announced for the first time under the project the Taoiseach said it was “a challenging question” to answer “off the top of my head”. However he cited:

• Bus connects for Dublin — €2bn;
• Bus connects for Cork and Galway;
• The M20;
• €1.6bn investment in health IT;
• The N4 from Collooney to Castlebaldwin;
• The DCU project.

The strategy also looks at rebalancing growth. The project says three quarters of growth will be outside Dublin, with 50% of the projected population growth planned for our towns, villages and rural areas and 50% for cities.

Tánaiste Simon Coveney said there was a need to change how Ireland was growing, particularly to tackle sprawl.

Sinn Féin was equally critical of the apparent plan gaps, with Greens leader Eamon Ryan saying it poses more questions than answers and Labour leader Brendan Howlin and deputy leader Alan Kelly saying the plan was open to potential legal action.

The Irish Planning Institute’s president Joe Corr said while a two-decade infrastructure strategy is a “mature step”, there are still serious gaps in the document which must be addressed and that the document is more about “politics following politics rather than politics following planning”.