National Development Plam

0lordy

Any thoughts on the impact to the North West from yesterday's National Development Plan?

The divil is in the detail, here's some of the references to this neck of the woods:

Investment priorities:
• Implementation, by the relevant local authorities, of an integrated strategy for the strategic
development of Letterkenny as an integral part of the Northwest Gateway;
• Enhancement of road links to other Gateways along the Atlantic Road Corridor;
• Further improvements on the N2 route, in co-operation with the Northern Ireland Authorities, to greatly improve the road link to Dublin over the period of the Plan;
• Further investment at Derry Airport and continued support for Donegal Regional Airport;
• Enhancement of the capacity and resilience of energy supply networks;
• Strengthening the innovation capacity at Letterkenny Institute of Technology and building on
complementary strengths at Magee College in Derry;
• Initiatives to deepen the skills base of the labour force in order to facilitate the creation and attraction of higher value-added enterprise functions; and
• Improvements to the stock of healthcare and social infrastructure such as regional hospital and
specialist care services on a shared basis between Donegal and facilities in Northern Ireland.

… €96 million for investment in the six regional airports and City of Derry Airport;

First thought is that the idea of Letterkenny being a gateway town was part of a so-called Spatial Strategy >2 years ago, then the gov proceeded to decentralise with little if any of the planned jobs going to Letterkenny.

Any one got the low-down on potential opportunities for the NW in terms of employment, infrastructure etc?

muffler

Good topic. I haven't had time to look at this whole thing in detail yet but I should get a chance to go through it in detail over the next few days

djDaithi

again haven't had much chance to look through it but it does seem that following the trend of the last 10 years the bulk of the development is being targetted in and around Dublin.

jimmycrackcorm

I haven't looked at the details but I'd put the two highest priorities at transport links and broadband.

donegalman1

It'll make no difference here, though the current govt might wanna look good up north and thereby help get a good road from Monaghan to Derry and we might get a spur to Letterkenny.

Eircom have no interest in fully rolling out broadband (Primetime RTE 30th Jan)

The Gateway status for Letterkenny was the biggest con ever perportrated on the good people of Donegal

K-9

Mary Coughlan announced plans for a motorway for the N2 before Christmas yet there is no mention of this in the Plan. Maybe it's up to the County Council's what roads they upgrade and they don't have to follow the plan.The N56 at Illistrin was never planned to be upgraded but after enough publicity from Ciaran Brogan it eventually was. Maybe politics is more important than any plan. That was definitely the case with decentralisation. I think it was Buncrana and Donegal Town that were picked.Nothing against those towns but the loss of Fruit of the Loom, Magees etc. probably had more to do with that than any plan. Why spend a fortune on advisors and consultants and not implement these plans. Other than the IT's development I can't see any evidence of the last plan in Letterkenny. All the growth has been in the services and construction sector i.e. private sector.

The only innovative thing in the new plan is Linking Derry and LK together as a designated area. Sounds good but will it work in practice and how will they achieve this. In defence of the Government alot of the N2 has been upgraded. Castleblayney has been started and the stretch after Monaghan to Aughnacloy is in the planning stage. Which leaves Manor to Lifford and the Northern part. Hopefully these will be fasttracked in this plan.

K-9

Oh yeah, forgot to say. When eas the last major announcement of say 100 jobs or more for LK or indeed Donegal. There was big talk of possibilities after Unifi pulled but nothing since. The Hospital is now the biggest employer in the town and I'd say the IT isn't far behind. I hope it's not a case of getting dependent on the Public Sector like the North e.g. read somewhere something like 35 or 40% of employment in the North is Public Sector or funded.

It seems to be more a case of building these great roads to lead to Dublin rather than to the regions. I wonder is this the case in other comparable towns, say Castlebar, Dundalk etc.
The IDA is trying to attract value added industries rather than the traditional manufacturing industries because of the global economy yet everything does seem to go to Dublin. Surely these industries shouldn't be as dependent on Dublin as the old ones? Or do they all want to set up in the Greater Dublin area as thats where 1/2 the population is and there is nothing we can do about it?

Martyr

its completely flawed.
even the governments own thinktank, the ESRI said the government would have to raise taxes by 7 billion euro a year..
the question is, who do they expect to pay for it?
planning developers? HA! the same guys who are going to pocket from it, big time.
I see more poverty, more cuts in the already defunct health service, more people in debt..the NDP 2 is nothing but an election stunt by bertie, more lies.

EDIT:
i heard on newstalk 106 tonight, a nun talking about how land they sold to the county council has been sold to developer for a hotel instead of a town park that was promised.

http://www.politics.ie/viewtopic.php?topic=16902

letterkenny mart ring a bell anyone??

this is the kind of scum we have running the country..no better than your al capone mafia.

They are bleeding the country dry.
worthless.

BostonB

0lordy wrote:

...The divil is in the detail....

First thought is that the idea of Letterkenny being a gateway town was part of a so-called Spatial Strategy >2 years ago, then the gov proceeded to decentralise with little if any of the planned jobs going to Letterkenny...

The reality is that there is no detail. its all knee jerk reaction to gain votes.