PARISH-PUMP POLITICS KEEPS ITS FOOT FIRMLY ON NECK OF NATIONAL INTEREST

EVER wonder why eurozone economies such as Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands have stable, prosperous societies; while Ireland oscillates between boom and bust cycles? Well, brace yourself, for the fundamental design flaw of our political system has been laid bare.

We have been cursed with two chronic afflictions in our politics namely: shortterm-ism and cronyism. Not thinking beyond the next election is a blight. But when combined with a culture of who you know, rather than what you know, it becomes totally corrosive. We have institutionalised national ‘likeable rogue’ character flaws, and they won’t be fixed; it’s the way we are.

We have developed a small State locked into a village mentality. The friendly ‘decent-skin-mans-ship’ disposition is all-pervasive.

The unavoidable consequence is that local politics will always supersede the national interest. The electoral system delivers national parliamentarians whose very existence depends on constituency survival. And thus, a TD’s overriding loyalty (beyond party) is to their county jersey, district electoral area, or home town base.

If you still need convincing look no further than our 2040 National Development Plan/Planning Framework, it has the grubby fingerprints of our electoral system all over it.

In every developed democracy worldwide, two inexorable irreversible trends dominate – globalisation and urbanisation. We ignore them at our peril. International mobile investment flight patterns are well-established. They, without exception, locate their employment projects in cities with the largest labour markets. They are entirely predictable because they want the best professional services, maximum accessible air/ sea ports, top universities, hospitals with centres of excellence, efficient transport and optimal leisure facilities.

But State investment in the built environment is only half the story. Capturing private property development capital is the critical other half. It’s the back story to New York, Shanghai, Mumbai, Dubai or Vienna. It is the trigger to sustained growth.

Each year, the IDA battles to secure such mobile investment for Ireland Inc. We recently competed unsuccessfully for two EU agencies departing London, post-Brexit. The European Medicines Agency, and the European Banking Authority. Dublin lost out respectively to Amsterdam and Paris.

Let’s grow up. It’s a national win sum game for the country to have the fastest-growing capital city in Europe over the next 15 years. It’s a zero-sum game to drag Dublin down through equalised regional balance across the entire country. The urban versus rural debate inside Government/ Dáil derails any prospect of achieving a ‘Republic of Opportunity’.

It was this negative mindset of begrudgery in Middlesbrough and Sunderland that gave birth to Brexit. The anti-London mentality will succeed only in diminishing the entirety of England. Wales’ optimal opportunity is best realised through Cardiff and Swansea, rather than the Valleys. Scotland’s success relies on Glasgow and Edinburgh to capture, through critical mass and scale, developments that simply won’t locate in the Highlands.

So we think we can make Athlone and Sligo into international cities in the Midlands and NorthWest? Wake up, that’s just delusional. Apparently, a trade-off in Midlands politics means that Charlie Flanagan can veto reorganisation of the A&E of Portlaoise hospital to facilitate Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran’s Shannonside swagger. Constituency politics keeps its foot firmly on the neck of the national interest.

Successful European democracies invariably have a far better electoral architecture. The party list system eliminates ‘leprechaun politics’. MPs can’t act the eejit on the national stage, like Michael, Mattie and Danny. We pay too high a price for these petty parish politics.

By contrast, the voting list system fundamentally alters the electoral base of parliamentarians. Instead of regional localised area based constituencies, MPs elected on the list system have a broader constituency: the entire country. Hence, they tend to act in the national interest.

The key to addressing the problems of Dublin’s sprawl is implementing a vision of high-rise, highdensity accommodation in a fabulous modern city of quality apartments, with the best amenities within walking distance and worldclass rapid mass public transportation. It’ll take two decades and €30bn of combined State and private property investment.

Instead we’ve decided to follow the votes down the rabbit-hole of 40 multi-seat constituencies, spreading scarce investment nationwide.

The most realistic way to reverse antipathy towards Dublin is to develop a second city to capture the global zeitgeist of international investment. It’s easier to build on an existing base rather than reinventing the wheel in the back of beyond.

Cork city and county has a population base of 540,000. It already has in situ the marine and aviation access infrastructure, university and hospitals.

Cork docklands present an opportunity for Europeanscale site development. The 220-hectare brownfield development of both the north and south stocks is an unrivalled opportunity in Ireland to create 10,000 housing units and up to 30,000 jobs. It could be transformed into a dynamic urban quarter, attracting tens of thousands of jobs and residents. Cork city could double in size. A real southern capital.

Its actual strategic zone includes: 4km of waterfront at the City Docks of 120ha; southside from the new stadium at Páirc Uí Chaoimh to the city centre; northside from Kent Station to the Custom House site. At Tivoli Docks (on the north bank of the river/east of the city) there’s 61 ha with 3km of river frontage, including the Port of Cork Millennium 2000 Park.

A breakdown of IDA jobs reveals that the greater hinterland of Dublin and Cork accounts for 138,656 jobs out of a total of 210,443. Decades of manufacturing investment has resulted in 65.9pc (two out of three) in Foreign Direct Investment employment clustering around our two largest cities. Go figure what future employers will want.

I’m a country boy, not a city slicker. My head and heart are grounded in six generations of life in Enniscorthy. Wexford is in my blood; where I’ll be buried. For employment reasons, I and my family have had to migrate to earn a weekly living. The same 2018 reality check for every parent is whether their adult sons and daughters work in cities abroad or in their native country. It’s a no-brainer for us to secure futures for them at home. In Dublin/ Cork rather than London, Barcelona or Toronto. It won’t be Bohola.

But don’t expect change any time soon. TDs won’t adopt a list system. The bandwagon of parochial politics rumbles on destroying dreams of progress in its path.

The National Planning Framework will be dust under its wheels. And poor old Ireland Inc will continue to underperform.