Project Ireland 2040 is the government’s new €116 billion plan that aims to make Ireland a better place for everyone. With expected increases of one million inhabitants and more than 650,000 workers over the next 22 years, the initiative aims to make sure there are comprehensive social, economic and cultural infrastructures in place to accommodate everyone.

With more people travelling to work, school and universities on our roads and transport systems, more buildings will be needed to accommodate them and clean water will be needed for the half a million new homes they will live in, as well as for farms and industry. Ireland also has an ageing population and so, we will need more and better care facilities in the coming years.

The plan will focus on ensuring that 75% of all population growth occurs outside Dublin going forward, bucking current trends. Galway, Limerick, Waterford and Cork are all expected to grow by 50% by 2040, with bigger towns like Athlone, Sligo and Letterkenny being pegged as areas of potential.  

Everything Project Ireland 2040 seeks to achieve is built around three core themes - wellbeing, equality and opportunity.

Rather than focusing on economic targets, Project Ireland 2040 focuses on setting priorities around values and social outcomes through its ten key objectives:

• Compact Growth
• Enhanced Regional Accessibility
• Strengthened Rural Economies and Communities
• Sustainable Mobility
• A Strong Economy supported by Enterprise, Innovation and Skills
• High Quality International Connectivity
• Enhanced Amenity and Heritage
• Transition to a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Society
• Sustainable Management of Water and other Environmental Resources
• Access to High Quality Childcare, Education and Health Services

So what does this really mean?

You can see the full plan here and we have broken down the key areas for you below:

Housing

With the increase in inhabitants and the workforce, the plan sets out to build an additional half a million homes across the country. If you break that down, it means we can expect to see an average of  25,000-35,000 homes being built every year for the next 22 years. That figure doesn’t include the 112,000 new social houses that will be added by 2027 as well.

In order to prevent sprawl, 40% of these developments will be within established cities, villages and towns.

There are also two major new funds offering €1 billion for rural regeneration projects, and €2 billion for urban regeneration projects. Portlaoise has been selected to be the pilot for regeneration, showcasing how a town centre can be rebuilt following unstructured growth.

Transport

With so many extra people on the roads and using our transport systems, transport infrastructure is a central focus of the plan. Transport improvements will also see the various systems aim to meet the country’s low-carbon demands.

While investment in road networks in all regions is key, there is a particular focus on improving accessibility with the Northwest of the country, which has been comparatively neglected until now, according to the project outline.

In the capital, the Metro North will be in focus, as well as an expansion of the Dart network, potential new Luas lines, new segregated cycling networks and an overhaul of bus fleets. Dublin Airport will see its new runway completed and regional airports in Cork, Shannon and Knock will also see investment.

Nationwide

In order to ensure that opportunities for growth aren’t confined to Dublin, the new Rural Regeneration and Development Fund of €1 billion will be utilised to help towns, villages and outlying rural areas experience sustainable growth.

The plan divides Ireland into three regions - Northern and Western; Southern; Eastern and Midland (includes Dublin). The objective is that these three regions will experience comparable growth going forward, rather than Dublin and the surrounding areas exceeding the rest when it comes to opportunities.

A key part of this will be the short-term goal of delivering the National Broadband Plan to ensure fast, secure, high capacity connectivity all over the country.  

This fund will also be charged with the ongoing development of tourism, agriculture, greenways, the Gaeltacht, islands, fisheries and forestry in rural Ireland.

In the west of the country, the plan for growth in all sectors makes accessibility a high priority. The project outlines the delivery of a high quality road network linking Cork, Limerick, Galway and Sligo called the Atlantic Corridor.

Health

The plan recognises the need for facilities and infrastructure to support the caring of people’s health in their locality as much as possible. This will be achieved by reorienting the health services towards primary and community care.

Some of the actions outlined as part of this include, more than 2,500 new acute hospital beds nationwide, a new hospital in Cork, as well as an elective-only hospital in Cork, Dublin and Galway, and a new National Forensic Mental Health Service Hospital.

The completion of the National Children’s Hospital and National Maternity Hospital also comes under this.

Education

Responding to the growing population, there are a number of immediate actions being taken in terms of education. There will be fifty large scale schools projects every year until 2021, making an average of 20,000 more school places available annually.

The focus on education will also see the expansion of capacity in Institutes of Technology, increases for post graduate and post-doctoral provision, and sustained capital investment across the school system responding to curriculum change and technological developments.

Financially, €8.4 billion has been set out for the building of schools, along with a further €420 million for a digital strategy.

International market

Ireland is a growing competitive market in the international business world and Project Ireland 2040 has outlined some objectives to ensure this remains the case.

The new €500 million Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund and €2.2 billion planned investment in infrastructure for higher education aims to drive collaboration between the research, education and enterprise sectors.

There will also be further investments vis public-private partnerships in 11 ITs, new apprenticeship schemes and the establishment of a new National Design Centre to support innovation in business.

Brexit

There will be a number of specific investments in the border regions, north east and north west of the country in a bid to address any impact of Brexit going forward.

Drogheda and Dundalk have been identified as high potential regions for growth and development and they will join Newry as part of a new Dublin-Belfast corridor.

Sligo and Letterkenny are also going to benefit from further investment as regional centres.

While we have seen plans and projects of this time from various governments in Ireland over the years, it’s important to recognise the differences with Project Ireland 2040.

Instead of focusing on the here and now and the immediate future, this plan takes a deeper look at our future over a much longer period of time with a much broader scope than just investment and infrastructure.

If you want to know more about Project Ireland 2040, you can find the full outline here. This article was produced in partnership with Project Ireland 2040, an initiative of The Government of Ireland.