Sir, - Am I alone in objecting to the opportunistic and politically expedient manner in which the neighbouring counties of Dublin (Wicklow, Meath, Kildare) have recently been subsumed into what is now described as "the Greater Dublin Area"?
An article (March 27th) explains how the Dublin and Mid-East Regional Authority have collaborated to draw up new strategic planning guidelines which "aim to consolidate the metropolitan area and to create new development centres in its hinterland such as Naas, Navan and Wicklow." It appears obvious that what is being foisted on the surrounding counties is a Dublin expansion plan which is motivated by the growing housing crisis in Dublin City.
The co-operation of the Mid-East Regional Authority with a planning strategy which has little to do with the priorities of its own region reflects the fact that the regional structures which have been put in place in Ireland to date are merely administrative entities, rather than autonomous regional systems of governance.
Meath, Wicklow and Kildare are largely agricultural counties, with local economies heavily dependent on agribusiness, farming and related industries. Local rural communities are very settled and enjoy many of the benefits of community life which have long disappeared from the "metropolitan area" of Dublin. While there is undoubtedly a need to respond to local population growth by identifying and developing suitable development centres in these counties, it is extremely regrettable to see the Mid-East Regional Authority embrace a planning strategy driven by the development needs of another region.
The recent political debacle which involved Eurostat's refusal to recognise the artificial and wholly unconvincing regional structures put forward by our current Fianna Fail-led Government surely points to the need for this country to move away from its traditionally highly-centralised approach to government, and to begin to embrace the growing move towards regionalisation which is occurring at present in Europe.
Every region is this country stands to benefit directly from the introduction of a meaningful national policy on regionalisation. The devolution of power to genuinely autonomous regions would begin to redress the Dublin-centred approach to economic, and other policy-making which has prevailed in this country over the past few decades. Furthermore, a genuine move towards regionalisation would ensure that the current, and extremely worrying trend towards rural depopulation, and the concentration of the population in a number of large urban centres (principally Dublin) could be effectively addressed. - Yours, etc.,
Deirdre De Burca, (Green Party), Wellington Court, Novara Avenue, Bray, Co. Wicklow.