New National Development Plan must be all-Ireland - Sinn Féin
Published: 29 June, 2006
Sinn Féin Cllr Pearse Doherty has welcomed the support from the Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, for increased north-south integration, which will be included in the National Development Plan (NDP) 2007-1013 currently being prepared.
He said last night his party colleague Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin had asked Minister Cowen in the Dáil if the new plan would include a Derry - Dublin strategic transport corridor and what the new plan would contain in terms of enabling people in the border region to access health services at the nearest geographic location.
Cllr Doherty said:
"I welcome the support for increased north - south integration and the indication from Minister Cowen that it would represent a substantive element of the new plan. All government departments have been told to incorporate the all-island dimension into their submissions for the next National Development Plan for the period between 2007 and 2013 and last night Minister Cowen said there is ongoing liaison between Departments and their Northern counterparts and they will shortly engage in direct consultation on the North-South dimension of the NDP.
"Although the Minister said a considerable amount of practical co-operation in health initiatives are taking place, this should be the forerunner to far wider provision when it is finalised. Social and economic development since partition has been characterised by a 'back-to back' approach that has resulted in poor service delivery and economic under-development particularly in the places where the artificial border has impacted on normal socio-economic development.
"In terms of infrastructural development we need to see a strategic transport corridor to the North West which will have tremendous benefits for both areas. We also need to develop in a co-ordinated fashion the transport route, which currently fails to properly assist and encourage economic growth in both Donegal and Derry.
"The common chapter of the last NDP 2000-2006 marked a tentative step away from the 'back-to- back' approach. The all-Ireland elements in the new plan must advance and build upon the common chapter of the last NDP. Ideally what we should be looking at is a common development plan for Ireland rather than merely a common chapter.
"The new NDP is set to run up until 2013, it vital that it approaches development in a way which is integrated with development north of the border. Neither the 'National Spatial Strategy' nor 'Transport 21' took such an approach. The plan must facilitate and work for the reintegration, through infrastructural and service development and delivery, of natural hinterlands which have been divided by the artificial border and must progress the objective of establishing an all-Ireland economy".
|
