Lobby for the West proposal to tackle regional imbalance

by Caoimhín Rowland

I'm consistently reminded of the post-November election call by Councillor Damian Ryan's previous and erudite proposal for a 'council of the west' to be led by the recently retired Éamon Ó Cuív and Michael Ring, the two men who have ridden off into the sunset and duly deserving of their retirement.

But it's evidently clear there is a distinct need for a regional devolved governing body for the west and north-west as the region continues to lag behind the rest of a booming Ireland and places the area into a 'region in transition'.

Councillor Neil Cruise aptly surmised the demands a council of the west would work toward: a dual-carriageway from Kerry to Donegal through county Mayo via the N17, the re-opening of the Western Rail Corridor from Galway to Sligo and continued investment and expansion into Ireland West Airport.

Essentially, these are the three long-term infrastructural demands the people of Mayo have been demanding for what seems like decades now.

The unfortunate issue for Cruise is that within Mayo County Council, a far too narrow lens is placed upon those plans and they are viewed merely as east Mayo upgrades, while a robust council of the west would view these plans of being of strategic regional importance.

Unfortunately, the likelihood of each of those plans appears to reduce year-on-year.

It was easy to lambast the Green Party and then Transport Minister Eamon Ryan for placing the N17 on the back-burner, but under his tenure the All-Island Rail Review noted the need to re-open at least part of the Western Rail Corridor from Claremorris to Athenry, a proposal that is very much in the works and will begin to take shape over the course of this government.

A re-opening of a train line from Mayo to Galway will be a roaring success, reduce car traffic and open up travelling opportunities for those in rural communities who are currently limited by inadequate public transport options.

But it will be a major shame to see no connection to the region’s international airport - an open goal for the west to thrive.

Not to mention the lack of noise for connecting the province’s two largest cities by rail, another no-brainer for a forward thinking regional collective.

As county development plans are set to be re-opened, it will appear that the mantra and consistent refrain from central government is that 'housing is top priority'.

The well-rehearsed and long stated desire may seem to be a whole of government approach, but whether it's modular homes in the back garden or if it's easier access through the planning system, the location of homes in areas where the population continues to grow but also in rural villages needs to be looked at.

Councillors, long known for crowing about their lack of powers, will soon have the opportunity to make a big difference in housing as areas will be re-zoned across this county, with even TDs to be given powers to go over the heads of councillors when it comes to the local development plans - something I'm sure will go down swimmingly with long-standing independents in the council chamber here in Mayo.

You can be sure a council of the west, keen on working for the people in the area they represent, would not be bogged down in tiring speaking rights rows, deflect attention from sliding popularity toward printers in art galleries, and instead focus on the important issues that matter to the lives of the predominantly rural and western people of the region.

A living in cities tax credit, currently available if you decided to relocate to an urban centre, dangerously discriminates against rural living.

A national debate has rightly flared on demographics in the world of the GAA - a silent ticking time bomb that has all but exploded as more and more clubs lose members, schools reduce in numbers and towns begin to creak at the seams.

Balanced regional development is often lobbied for by politicians who now find themselves inside government, the likes of Marian Harkin, the Healy-Raes and Sean Canney to name a few, but there's a distinct lack of fair funding for rural regions within the west and peripheral parts of Ireland.

For instance, the west receives less than 15% of national infrastructure funding despite comprising nearly a quarter of the land mass.

At the very least, a regional council would have looked at the recent Storm Éowyn fall-out, conducted a study on our energy resilience, developed a plan for forestry for the area and, most importantly, put in place a unified plan for generators and community hubs for the next hurricane-force storm.

But unfortunately it did happen in the west and it's consigned to the 'ah, no one died so we need not learn from it' category.

Undoubtedly, a collection of politicians recently retired from the national arena, with working relationships with civil servants and funding bodies, could serve the people of the west well.

But what we truly need is an elected grouping to help deliver on the upgrade of the N17 and Western Rail Corridor.

The continued failure to make progress on these vital projects proves that national politics is not delivering for people west of the Shannon.

The time for a council of the west is not merely another lobby group but it would need to have devolved powers to be successful and obtain funding from the EU to implement changes to take the region out of being in transition.