The chairman of the Strategy South East lobby group, Mr Nicholas Fewer, has welcomed the National Spatial Strategy (NSS) in which Waterford is identified as a "gateway" city. The strategy also designates Kilkenny and Wexford as "hub towns" through which growth can be dispersed from Waterford across the south-east.
Mr Fewer said yesterday that Strategy South East had monitored progress on the strategy since December 2000 when a special forum was hosted by the Department of the Environment and Local Government in Limerick.
"Great credit is due to the Spatial Planning Unit at the Department for their work in framing this strategy. If the NSS is followed closely and the guidelines for future growth that it sets out do in fact become a real framework for development, then it has the potential to facilitate improved balance in Ireland.
"It can also provide guidance on developing policies that can bring jobs closer to people," said Mr Fewer, whose organisation published a report earlier this year setting out how the south-east could best develop between now and 2011.
"Every area of the country - and obviously the prime concern of Strategy South East is the future of this region - must have the opportunity to develop its own potential while taking account of the needs of the country as a whole. The strategy provides a framework to which local authorities, State agencies and the private sector should be able to work during the next two decades."