Real change starts with local needs, not pie-in-the-sky projects

The National Development Plan review is a rare chance to tell those in power what will make a real difference to how we live, writes Conor Skehan

THE Government has called for submissions on a revised National Development Plan (NDP). The NDP covers policy that affects the fabric of our daily lives in areas such as homes, jobs and travel.

Data from December 2020 projects show that, so far, less than one third of the current NDP’s projects by the four main agencies have been commenced or completed — despite the fact that many of these projects have been in more than two previous versions of the plan, ie, since 2007.

Worryingly, the two largest and most critical areas of infrastructure — energy and water services — have not even obtained permission for any of their largest projects, much less built them. In fairness, sectors such as transport, health and education have successfully completed some very bold ambitions.

This evidence suggests that it is premature to make plans for more new projects when there is a growing body of evidence about the lack of capacity to deliver many of the plans that we already have. Despite this, we are still likely to hear of calls for ambitious ‘Moonshot Projects’ that will magically cure all ills.

We are living through a period of great turmoil in which both Covid and Brexit are forcing us to re-evaluate much that, so recently, seemed so certain.

Working from home is here to stay and it will utterly change the patterns of where and how people will live. There will be a dramatic increase of population in smaller settlements and rural areas. This will be welcomed at first as seeming to deliver the holy grail of more balanced regional population and jobs.

In a short time, however, a new reality will emerge of dramatically changed patterns of travel that will affect the viability of many public transport projects — while also increasing traffic and demand for water services in hitherto quiet areas. Increased day-time populations will also change pressures on local services for education, health and amenities, not to mention increasing demand for local authority services.

Covid has accelerated changes in the patterns of retail and office working, which are the ‘glue’ that hold together the centres of our settlements. Without the numbers, the spending power and the business rates, many centres will deteriorate or become exclusive and expensive urban residential enclaves.

Meanwhile, changes caused by dramatically increased online activity, as well as Brexit, will drive big changes in the location and energy consumption of our services sector. Those who hold their noses at the business requirements of these new sectors will need to ask themselves about where their next job is likely to come from — or, more realistically, where their current job is likely to go to.

Anxiety defines our youth, faced with a tsunami of bad news that they feel helpless to affect. ‘Change’ is the word on every young pair of lips, often shouted in helpless rage, contempt or utter frustration.

There are plenty who are trying to capture and redirect these frustrations — often into the types of display that we see with Extinction Rebellion in London, the Yellow Vests in Paris or the Maga riot in Washington.

In Ireland, there is a similar restless hungering for change. Emotions leap to life at the first sight of any obvious wrong, such as housing last year or the mother and baby homes last week.

The problem with a world in which thoughts and emotions are driven by the news cycle is that it leaves little time or opportunity to reflect on the ‘why’ instead of the ‘what’. In Ireland’s case, many of our difficulties arise from the seldom-considered question of how we organise ourselves — often mistakenly believing that if we change who governs us, then everything will improve.

No political party or movement shows any interest in changing the basic mechanisms of the State. Change will only come about when we get back more control of our most immediate environs — not some coral reef in the Pacific.

The review of the NDP is one of those rare opportunities for all of us to step back and to ask ourselves: what do we really need, and how are we going to get it?

This is the opportunity for the ‘change the world’ person in your life to make a real difference. Get involved.

First, we need to examine who spends our money before we decide what to spend it on. We must spend less from the centre and we must make more plans based on what can actually be delivered.

Ireland has one of Europe’s highest amounts of spending by central government, compared with local government. We must devolve decision-making about public spending to a much lower level. So, the first answer to the ‘who’ question is ‘spend according to local need first’.

Then we need to give first priority to spending that ensures national wealth. We cannot share out what we do not have in the first place.

Spending on health, education and social protection, will always be limited by earned tax income. This means that we need to have a priority on infrastructure first, then services second.

If we accept that infrastructural spending must be the priority, then we need to scrutinise who spends this precious public money. This means that the second answer to the ‘who’ question is ‘assign spending to those who can spend it’.

These new approaches will please few in power. Politicians and officials will fiercely resist the transfer of power to more local levels — despite evidence that Ireland is now a glaring outlier. We have given away monopoly powers for the delivery of energy and water — the keys to our future success. These large and powerful agencies together with their regulator will strongly resist calls for increased accountability and effectiveness.

Progress towards future prosperity lies with those who are willing to patiently unravel the seemingly dull and complex problems of governance and infrastructure in a fast-changing world of ever-diminishing certainty.

We need to beware of those who promise us far-in-the-future ‘Moonshot Projects’ to deflect our attention from increasingly obvious failures to deliver what we need here and now.

Everybody needs to pay more attention to the future, if only for the sake of our youth.

In the next two weeks, log on to the NDP consultation site, it is called ‘Review to Renew’.

Tell them that you want to see better delivery of projects that will make a real difference to where you live. As you are there, remind them that all of the young around you want change too. They are not wrong.

‘Decision-making about public spending must be devolved to a much lower level’