It is wrong to suggest that growth in Dublin is to the disadvantage of other regions, writes Gina Quin
Whether it is supporters at GAA matches or supporters of future investment, people appear to be divided into two camps. You are either pro-Dublin or for the "rest of the country".
Some analysts would go so far as to say that growth in the Greater Dublin Area of Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Wicklow is at the expense of growth elsewhere and that Dublin can take care of itself.
Not so. The development of Dublin is actually a key driver of growth throughout Ireland. Balanced regional development is absolutely right; and greater Dublin should be given its due balance of investment resources.
City-regions are internationally recognised drivers of economic development, creating growth, innovation and employment for the whole country. Cities are the homes of most jobs, businesses and higher educational institutions and are the key actors in achieving social cohesion. They are the centres of change, based on innovation, entrepreneurship and business growth. We believe the greater Dublin area plays this role within the Irish economy - an increasingly important role in developing our knowledge economy.
Greater Dublin has a formidable mix of high value-added manufacturing and service businesses, including those in the financial and business services sector, ICT, pharma-chem, transport and logistics, and food and drink sectors. Large parts of the region's businesses are directly linked to the international economy and are under constant pressure from competitors in other countries. Sustaining the area's position requires continued and substantial investment in the social and economic infrastructure of the region, in a greater magnitude than anywhere else in the country.
Fortune magazine has ranked Dublin as the fifth most important city for business in Europe, clearly placing the capital in the same league as leading cities such as London, Helsinki and Amsterdam. These are the cities and regions against which Dublin and the greater Dublin area competes and competition is tough.
Many cities such as Geneva and Singapore have deeper skills bases and better infrastructure. We believe that Ireland needs greater Dublin to be a major magnet to attract certain kinds of high-value investments that are required if the economy is to remain prosperous.
There should be no illusions about this; any brake on Dublin's success would have a severe impact on the whole national economy. Under-performance by Dublin would not be offset by growth in Letterkenny, Tullamore or Athlone: it would be Riga, Budapest or Prague that would gain at the expense of the whole island of Ireland.
Greater Dublin is also the country's physical gateway to the international economy. More than €20 billion of the proposed €34 billion Transport 21 plan has been allocated to rail and road projects there. Much of this spending is for the benefit of firms and individuals across the country. The metro will take people from Dublin airport to the city centre, facilitating public transport connections to the rest of the country. The interconnector linking Heuston and Connolly railway stations will allow seamless travel from Cork to Belfast.
The Port Tunnel and improvements to the M50 will allow cargo to move more swiftly through Dublin Port, which handles 40 per cent of Ireland's sea-based trade.
We believe that it is vital that the Government makes more concerted and publicly available plans for the demographic changes that the economy faces. In 2005, the CSO forecast that the population in the greater Dublin area area would rise to 2.1 million by 2021 from the 1.6 million figure recorded in this year's census. This is 10 years earlier than was previously forecast.
The continued growth in net inward migration and a rising birth rate suggests that even the latest CSO projection will be exceeded. Past infrastructure development plans have been characterised by serious under-estimations of population growth. For example, the Dublin Transportation Office's projections for transport demand in 2016 were reached in 2003.
For far too long, the country has had to endure a painful infrastructure catch-up process. We believe that in addition to the excellent Transport 21, the Government should prepare other long-term capital programmes for the environment, health, housing and education. This would really cater for the projected population increase of Ireland and greater Dublin.
The upcoming National Development Plan is a chance to get things right. The next national development plan can provide a pitch where the greater Dublin area and the national economy can both win.
Gina Quin is chief executive of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce