Wide-ranging changes in 2040 plan

Decentralisation, expanding county boundaries, more money for Irish Water and eventual rollout of the Metro North line are just some of the country-wide issues covered by the new National Planning Framework

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at the launch of the Ireland 2040 Plan at Sligo IT last FridayJames Connolly

All new state agencies will have to be located outside Dublin under the new Ireland 2040 plan.

This could include the new National Regeneration and Development Agency being set up to develop unused state lands for housing, as well as the forthcoming House Building Finance Ireland quango to provide funding to builders.

The move has echoes of the previous Fianna Fáil government’s 2003 decentralisation programme, which was about moving existing civil servants out ...