Dublin ‘monster’ devours country

I FIND myself stuck in traffic on the M50, the N7, or in Dublin city, reluctantly adding to the traffic chaos because I need to visit a surgeon, attend a match, go to the airport for a holiday flight or visit the headquarters of a company that does not need to be located in Dublin.

There is in fact a long list of services that require me, and people like me, to commute needlessly to the capital.

The recent decision by Aer Lingus to transfer its Shannon-Heathrow route to Belfast will add to the problem by putting more traffic on the M50 and N7 and remove a vital piece of infrastructure from the mid-west region.

Dublin has become a ‘monster’ sucking the economic life out of cities and towns in the rest of the country from Cork to Donegal.

It is also causing a brain-drain of graduates, with most of them leaving towns on the west side of the country to relocate to the east.

Once they leave and put down roots, it is extremely difficult to get them back, as we have seen from the decentralisation programme.

Some 40% of the population of the State now live in the greater Dublin area.

At present, Dublin hospitals can’t cope, schools can’t cater for the increase in pupil numbers in the their own environs and all services, including water, are stretched to the limit.

The proposed solution to the water problem is to siphon the Shannon river and the livelihoods of the people who depend on it for a living.

This has become a vicious circle. As the capital grows, it will require more infrastructure and services.

When these are provided more people will be attracted to the city, again putting the enhanced services under pressure, and the cycle starts again.

Hardly a week goes by without hearing that more jobs have been created on the east coast while they have been lost by the hundred in places like Castlemahon and Kantoher in Co Limerick, Fermoy in Co Cork, and in other towns and villages throughout the country.

Rural towns cannot compete with Dublin where the infrastructure for job creation is in place and where all the political and industrial power is located.

An extra lane can be built on the M50 or the N7 at enormous cost and it would appear at the drop of a hat without having to go on a 20-year waiting list like towns outside the capital which are constantly told funds are not available and planning is regularly refused on the basis that the infrastructure is not in place.

Who is responsible for providing this infrastructure? This is not a fair fight, of course. Companies will want to locate in Dublin when they are told that all the facilities are in place there with an educated workforce at their disposal.

It is also true that a proportion of the graduates will be recruited from the rest of the country — hence the brain-drain.

It is the responsibility of the Government and State agencies to address this serious problem.

We have lost part of Shannon airport, we could lose part of the Shannon river, not to mention the fallout in jobs and investment. I think it is time for our rural politicians to cry halt.

Pat McLoughlin

11 Meadow Court

Newcastle West

Co Limerick