O Cuiv criticises policy on urban growth centres

The Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Mr Eamon O Cuiv, has criticised Government policy on the proposed designation of urban growth centres in the regions.

Addressing the theme of A Spatial Strategy for Ireland in the New Century at the Parnell Summer School in Co Wicklow yesterday, Mr O Cuiv said it was the "worst kept secret" that a key factor in the forthcoming spatial strategy was to limit urban sprawl in Dublin.

However, he said urban sprawl was already being felt in the regions, particularly the Limerick/Galway axis and he argued "the spatial strategy will not change any of this one way or the other".

In contrast to the State's policy of selecting about four major growth gateways outside Dublin for development over the next 20 years, Mr O Cuiv favoured a return to the development of small townlands and villages in rural areas, as they provided a "far better quality of life".

He questioned whether urban-based "mobile foreign investment" represented the largest employment prospects in the State and suggested decentralising civil servants could also be effective. "If we set our face to move as many jobs as possible tomorrow, away from centres of growth, we would get many takers," he insisted.

He said he was in favour of one-off housing in rural areas and rejected suggestions that such homes were unsustainable from an energy, environmental or social point of view.

Mr O Cuiv said his diesel car performed well in rural areas, giving a more efficient return and less pollution than it could manage in congested urban centres.

In terms of the cost of energy provision, Mr O Cuiv said if the State had to bring electricity to the end of a valley to one house, it would not be uneconomical because other houses in the valley would be using it too.

He said smaller rural communities were more inclusive than deprived urban areas. Smaller universities demonstrated a similar principle and he did not see why disused secondary schools in rural areas could not be utilised by the National University, using technology, to provide their courses.

However the chairman of An Taisce, Mr Michael Smith, said there were significant social "disbenefits" in scattered, one-off housing. The State, which currently holds about one million houses, will build another 550,000 houses over the next 10 years. He said it was "an unprecedented opportunity to create a new Ireland and the emphasis must be on quality".

However he said the State's first experiment in regional planing, the strategic planning guidelines for the greater Dublin area, had been disappointing. The planning process had been "tainted" by revelations at the tribunals and the volume of housing Meath, Kildare and Wicklow were "clamouring to build" without sufficient regard to the guidelines.

He noted the Meath County Development Plan proposed an additional 70,000 houses above the regional guidelines, while the Wicklow plan proposed an additional 55,000 houses and a similar figure was proposed by Kildare. "If we allow almost 200,000 extra houses in the greater Dublin region, all projections in the National Spatial Strategy are blindingly inaccurate," he warned.

Mr Philip Jones of the Irish Planning Institute also warned of the importance of councils in the greater Dublin area "behaving responsibly".

"At national level we have to beware of parochialism," he said. "We have to avoid the syndrome that sees the proposed spatial strategy as an opportunity to have an airport at every county town, a national digital park at every motorway or bypass junction and an advance factory at every village."

Mr Jones said the plan for growth centres or "gateways" would likely see Cork, Limerick and Galway selected for special infrastructural intervention along side either Waterford, Sligo or Letterkenny/Derry.