Submission by Cllr Mary Roche on the National Development Plan Review to Renew - submitted 28/01/21
ISSUE (i) REGIONAL INVESTMENT (SPECIFICALLY IN RELATION TO THE SOUTH EAST)
UNIVERSITY/TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
There is a gap between the rhetoric of the National Development Plan and the governments actual capital expenditure. The National Planning Framework commits to supporting double the growth rate in regional cities relative to Dublin. However the projects funded in Dublin represent over 60% of the committed funding with all other regions receiving less than a fair share based on their populations especially the South East region. This starkly demonstrates the growing regional inequity in Ireland and in a practical way why the South East economy is unlikely to close the gap with the rest of the country until alternative, more equitable measures actually reflecting the stated aims of the government are adopted. Until the reality reflects the rhetoric, in short.
This review is an opportunity for just such rebalancing if it is grasped.
Notwithstanding the performance of indigenous companies in the South East and success in attracting and sustaining FDI in these industries, the SE economy has only partially participated in the knowledge-led transformation of the Irish economy, with around 60% per capita GDP, 56% of per capita IDA supported jobs, 45% per capita income tax returns, persistently higher unemployment, and lower labour market participation. Though the potential exists for much higher performance, and despite concentrated effort on the part of regional enterprise, the region’s economy has significantly under-performed compared to the state since 1980, tumbling from being the 2nd richest NUTS3 region to now being the 3rdpoorest region in Ireland.
- Ireland 2040 and the Southern Regional RSES signal a way forward for the region that involves rebalancing national priorities in a way that enables the South East to realise its potential. The national and regional plans both strongly endorse the transformation of the South East region through the further transformation of Waterford city, intensifying investment in innovation, technology, and learning to drive sustainable regional growth.
- Adding higher education capacity to the region is a core tool in strengthening the regional economy. Right-sizing higher-education capacity would contribute €1bn to the regional economy, as it does in other regions. Having appropriate higher education capacity creates a pool of graduate talent, is a magnet for FDI and investors, generates the knowledge intensity that produces ideas, information and practices for entrepreneurship, all of which produces wealth and resilience. This in turn supports high quality social infrastructure—health care, education, services, vibrant communities and cultural life. In practice, to complete this transformation means scaling up current higher education provision to create a university of substance and critical mass in the region and involves doubling the number of degree-level undergraduate places through new courses, new buildings and quality initiatives, coupled with transformative growth of postgraduate and research activity.
- The foundation for this university of substance exists in Waterford Institute of Technology. Where the new knowledge-led economy has emerged in the region, it has done so in association with Waterford Institute of Technology. WIT, working with a hinterland that acutely feels the need for university-type services has developed into degree, postgraduate and research and is the leading provider to leaving certificate students with 32% market share. Carlow, for comparison is the fourth largest provider in the region with an 8% share. WIT’s research and innovation performance is unmatched by any other Institute, making a €1bn impact over the past 20 years, ranking 2nd amongst all Irish HEIs in attracting competitive European funding in ICT, hosting the only technology gateway in the sector with leading research capacity in advanced manufacturing and biopharma. Advancing higher education in the region needs to build on existing clear strengths and high performance and to focus on the regional city. A properly funded TU (which is not what’s on offer) is a unique opportunity for the NDP to deliver a step change, once in a century opportunity to actually give the South East the tools to tackle all those parameters and become nett contributors to Ireland Inc.
- the last new teaching building delivered in WIT was designed in 1998 and finally delivered in 2005. Since 2008 some €996m was provided in capital funding to higher education in other regions.
The SE’s higher education platform needs to be put on an equivalent funding platform to other regions, to encompass capital programmes, borrowing capability and supports, state grant, research income and access to other voted expenditure programmes. Current total institutional income of the SE institutions of €125m, is €97m below a pro-rata share. The region is closed out of the borrowing framework facilitated between the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Universities (and also TUD through the Grangegorman Development Agency Act 2005) and is limited in its ability to compete for SFI funds. Progressively over the next five years (2021-2026), the Government needs to commit to bring the SE institutions into line with the funding that flows into comparable regions.
Much of the region’s difficulties emerge from the political challenge of developing urban services, with other cities contesting to deliver these to the region, and the significant towns and historical city in the region contesting within the region — this is evident in health, retail, the boundary extension debate and in cultural projects.
I see no other way of delivering the economic and social transformation than building on the raw material of WIT. The entire TU process emerged in response to WIT’s university application in 2005, which itself was a manifestation of the pressure to add higher education capacity in the SE. A decade after the TU was offered as the pathway forward for the region there is no plan or ambition to add capacity in the region.
The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science stoodaside and watched this unproductive decade-long mess emerge, whilst equally supporting significant strategic advances elsewhere - in Grangegorman, RCSI, in the universities, in Limerick IoT and elsewhere; it does look as if the Department (and by extension, the Government) are erring on the side of suppressing the emergence of a university of substance in the region at the expense of our region’s economy.
At this moment it is as likely that the TU as currently constituted might in fact halt the region’s economic transformation, taking from the impact of the region’s IoTs as these institutions wrestle themselves together. We need a Waterford-led University/TU that addresses the acute need for a university of substance in the region.
ISSUE (ii) REGIONAL INVESTMENT (SPECIFICALLY IN RELATION TO THE SOUTH EAST)
POPULATION OF WATERFORD CITY FOR THE PURPOSES OF INVESTMENT
Based on analysis the Waterford Metropolitan Area currently has a functional population of approximately 104,000. In fact a more expansionary and ambitious metropolitan area based on high-quality corridor access to Waterford CBD from Kilkenny, Wexford and Clonmel would indicate a metropolitan area population of approximately 225,000 within a 45-minute isochrone.
A comparative study of all five MASP boundaries in Ireland demonstrates there is no consistency in their development. Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford appear to be based on CSO electoral district boundaries: Galway appears to be based more on CSO small areas analysis. Both Cork and Dublin have metro zones created during previous studies involving the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. Given that the statutory Boundary Review Committee decision on Waterford City was set aside by political intervention, it is important a technical, evidence-based approach be taken that reports the actual scale of Waterford City to ensure regional service delivery.
Supressing the population of Waterford Metropolitan Area is used to further diminish service provision in the region in acute healthcare, retail, higher education, MNC marketing and support activity, entrepreneurship support and cultural/tourist investment - particularly across the Ireland 2040 investments.
Estimates indicate a spend of €800m in Limerick MASP, €1.1bn in Cork and around only €110m in Waterford. There is no clear articulation of the existence of these regional imbalances, or a consideration of if, and how, these regional imbalances might be addressed.
The artificial suppression of the Waterford City population relative to other Irish cities leads to consequent knock-on under investment in Waterford as the ‘smallest city’. A label which I vehemently contest. The current population of Waterford City does not represent the truth.
• Limerick’s Metropolitan Area includes the Clare town of Shannon (10k people | 23.5km).
• Cork’s Metropolitan Area includes Carrigaline (15k people | 15.7km), Ballincollig (18k people | 8.9km) and Middleton (12k people | 23.5k ).
• Waterford’s Metropolitan Area excludes Tramore (10k people | 12.6km), New Ross (9k people | 23km), Carrick on Suir (6k people | 27km), and smaller settlements of Mooncoin, Mulinavat,
At the very least Waterford can claim a population of 104,000 making it Irelands 3rd city highlighting an even further gap in the investment the city has and continues to receive.
ISSUE (iii) REGIONAL INVESTMENT (SPECIFICALLY IN RELATION TO THE SOUTH EAST)
REGIONAL ROADS N24 / RAIL / PORTS / AIRPORT
The exclusion of the N24 solution as proposed by the South East County Councils should be reconsidered. The decision to exclude Waterford/Wexford from the regional motorway ring (N24 solution) is crippling to regional cohesion and equality. It will create a Galway-Limerick-Cork Atlantic-corridor that strategically excludes the South East. This is the single biggest investment in regional infrastructure that should be included.
Rail
Given the commitments to compact urban development and addressing climate goals, there needs to be more strategic thinking around the region’s rail infrastructure. In particular, rail freight is essential to delivering on our climate goals. With carbon pricing likely to emerge within the life of the plan a full-throated articulation of how rail fits into the region’s transport plans is desirable.
Ports
The ports in the SE represent a significant infrastructural anchor of the region’s economy and an ambitious NDP would surely contain the aspiration to develop the ports from Core Ten-T ports to the more strategic Comprehensive designation (which is the status held by Limerick-Foynes, Cork and Dublin ports). We can observe significant investments being orchestrated and enabled in Dublin and Cork suggesting that over time the South Eastregion’s ports will decline in relative scale and importance. Those investments are stimulating demand for further linked infrastructure investments (such as the N28, and Dublin outer ring-road). Policies and strategies to support the usage and development of the South East Ports are critical in terms of carbon/climate, regionalisation, smart multi modal logistics, access to markets and development of the regional economy. The NDP is simply not ambitious or specific enough in offering a vision for the region’s ports, which is surprising given the significant capacity of the ports, the significant capacity in linked infrastructure and the relative congestion (and consequently higher pricing) of other ports.
Airport
The NDP should take a positive, expansionary position on the development of Waterford-South East regional airport, which is currently preparing for a runway expansion, as critical regional infrastructure. The additional cost is insignificant in comparison to the Dublin Airport runway project and could permit Waterford Airport to be a counterbalance to the unconstrained growth of Dublin Airport.
No comments:
Post a Comment