Vol. 515 No. 4
1 Mr. Quinn asked the Taoiseach the Government decisions, if any, taken on foot of the report of the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructural Development, Including Public Private Partnerships; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5177/00]
2 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Taoiseach if he will make a statement on the Government decisions, if any, arising from the report of the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructural Development, Including Public Private Partnerships. [5896/00]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 2 together.
On Tuesday 15 February, the Government endorsed an integrated package of changes to the existing statutory approval and judicial review processes in order to underpin accelerated delivery of infrastructure under the national development plan.
These measures were presented to the Government by the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructural Development and include proposals for improvements to existing processes from the design to the delivery stages. Changes will be made in respect of the planning process, the Planning Bill, judicial review and courts related issues. The committee was assisted in drawing up its recommendations by a cross-departmental team.
I have arranged for a copy of the press release outlining the measures to be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas.
Did I understand the Taoiseach to say that a copy of the press release will be laid before the Houses, or did he say a copy of the full decision?
A copy of which?
Perhaps I did not hear the Taoiseach correctly, but I thought he said towards the end of his reply that a copy of the press release outlining the contents of the committee's report would be made available. Are we talking about a press release or the full text of the decision that was made by the Cabinet?
Does the Taoiseach agree that comprehensive proposals were made and that it appears comprehensive decisions were taken by the Cabinet? There was a press release in the newspapers which said that High Court access and time limits in relation to planning procedures would be streamlined but we do not have the precise details, which is what we want to see. What is now in the public domain?
The document I have is headed "press release". I assume this was made public. It gives all the issues and is a fairly long document. It includes, in some detail, all the operational improvements to the planning process, gives the provisions of the Planning Bill in relation to judicial review and spells out the court related issues and the constitutional issues. I think that is in the public domain.
I presume that full document will become available.
Can I take, from what the Taoiseach said today and on a previous occasion, that legislative change, other than the amendments to the existing Planning Bill, is not contemplated? In other words, the provision of a special High Court section to deal with disputes relating to property arising from road widening and motorway schemes can be implemented without legislative change.
Am I correct in assuming that the motorways Acts do not need to be amended to have, for example, one single set of public hearings, one environmental impact study and so on for the completion of the motorway scheme from Dublin to Limerick and Cork, rather than doing it on a county by county basis as is currently the case? Will the Taoiseach outline, if he has the information – and, if not, will he make it available to me – what legislative changes, if any, will arise on foot of the decisions made by the Cabinet last week?
In regard to the judicial review area, the Planning Bill must be amended to include a clear legislative direction that the High Court should deal with applications for proceedings. Provision is to be included in the Planning Bill that the applicant for judicial review be required to have previously shown an interest in a case.
The courts related issues do not require legislation but the Courts Service is to be asked by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to examine ways of speeding up the processing of legal proceedings in relation to major infrastructural projects. These include the listing of signifi cant planning infrastructure cases for judicial review separately from other cases; putting in place an arrangement under which the President of the High Court may, from time to time, assign a judge to the hearing of significant planning infrastructural cases, so that that judge would specialise in those cases; the aim of putting agreed arrangements in place by this May; and the establishment of a separate division of the High Court to deal with planning and infrastructural issues in the light of the experience of the next 12 months. They will see if it is possible for the President of the High Court to put somebody in position. They believe that will succeed. If it does not, there will then be a division of the High Court. That does not require legislative changes.
Other aspects in the document concern the Planning Bill, the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands and the National Roads Authority. These include a code of practice governing the procedures in relation to archaeological licences for road projects, which is to be ready by the end of March. The Minister for the Environment and Local Government and the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources are to come to a decision on the process involving the national roads affecting the foreshore, where there is a number of issues and projects.
The National Roads Authority is to assume sole responsibility for route selection, which relates to the Deputy's question, on the core roads where this is clearly necessary and where significant reductions in delays and costs may be expected. As I understand it, the toll roads legislation does not require change. The objections can be taken in one bloc. The Attorney General has looked in detail at this issue. I have not seen his fine report, which the Department of the Environment and Local Government has been looking at in the context of the Planning Bill. However, subject to correction, I understand they can do that. It is the intention to do it, either with amendment, if it is required, or without amendment if it is not required.
I will give a precise example of what I mean, which might be of some remote interest to you, a Cheann Comhairle. The NRA recently came down in favour of a route for the N9, which will run from the Kilcullen end of the motorway to Waterford city. Under the present system, in order for that to go through the planning process, four separate local authorities would have to conduct four separate public inquiries, public hearings, environmental impact studies and assessments, all subject to separate judicial review. It would be the Glen of the Downs multiplied by one hundred. Will any of the decisions made by the Government in the past ten days bring about a situation where there will be one public hearing, one planning study, one environmental impact study, one environmental impact assessment and one legal process that would deal with the completion of the N9 from Kilcullen to Waterford?
Yes. The changes in procedures, the cross-departmental team's work, the additional agreements with the NRA and the legislative change in the planning Bill are all designed to deal with that procedure, as instructed by the Attorney General. The objective is that there would be one inquiry and one application, and that the NRA would be able to make a decision on its own as the current process is cumbersome. The Deputy and I favour a process which considers roads which go from A to Z, rather than a series of bypasses. The intention is that national roads will take a straight route and there will be one design and one application. That is the only way we will generate substantial interest in PPPs and attract much needed design teams from abroad.
Will the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform let them in?
He will have to.
Will the Taoiseach talk to him about this?
The Deputy probably knows more about this than I do, but projects have to be of a substantial nature to attract designers, as opposed to road builders, in the first instance.
Approximately how many amendments will be required to the planning Bill to give effect to these decisions?
I do not have the list but very few. Most of the amendments will concern judicial review procedures. Existing legislation on this issue is quite complex and is used to create substantial delays.
Does the Taoiseach envisage the fast-track, nationally coherent approach to road development being applied to the provision of housing and new towns?
That is a separate issue.
It concerns infrastructural development.
That is true. The cross-departmental team also put forward suggestions on other issues but it is mainly concerned with infrastructure. The committee is dealing with the institutional and administrative arrangements for the delivery of public transport, the administrative arrangements for the implementation of national roads projects, institutional arrangements for transport in the greater Dublin area, the recommendations on the statutory approval and judicial review processes and the development and implementation of the communications strategy. We are not dealing with the development of housing but the national roads plan and the national development plan will assist in dealing with these issues.
Does the Taoiseach agree that we have a housing crisis as far as affordable housing is concerned? Does he also agree that the current approach of each housing application being considered separately, without reference to existing infrastructural provisions and perhaps with reference to a development plan which is six years old, is not leading to the rapid provision of the kind of housing necessary to meet the urgent needs?
We have strayed into a different area.
It is not a different area.
It is a different area. We are discussing the cross-departmental team on infrastructure which is not yet building houses.
It will not be doing so.
The Minister for the Environment and Local Government is responsible for this issue. We are building 50,000 houses this year. The planning process and procedures require that each application is examined. People have a right to appeal and to object. Land must be zoned and the development plans should be up to date, as they are in most councils. These plans must be adhered to. The infrastructure around these plans is an essential element.
The infrastructural committee is working on the road and rail networks to ensure that we have modern and efficient transport so that by the end of the plan in 2006, after £41 billion has been spent on infrastructural development, journey times will be far less than at present. I am not going to get into the questions on housing policy, which are matters for the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, as that does not relate to this question.
Does the Taoiseach agree that this infrastructure is being provided to facilitate people in having a place to live which is accessible to their work? Does he also agree that it does not make sense to talk about housing policy in isolation from transport or amenity development policy? These issues are all part of the same problem and should be dealt with as such. Will the Taoiseach reconsider his decision to separate what he is calling infrastructure from housing, as they are part of the one living space issue?
Under the principle of collective responsibility the Minister for the Environment and Local Government is responsible to the Dáil for these details.
If I was to answer such questions there would be no need for other Ministers. I could do so successfully but I do not think it would be a good idea. There are 40 housing initiatives taking place under the planning and development plan. Modern communications, infrastructure and facilities will be provided. We are trying to co-ordinate implementation of the national development plan on the building of a modern infrastructure as quickly as possible.
How can the Taoiseach achieve a coherent provision of infrastructure in the absence of a national spatial plan which would indicate where houses will be located? How is the Government planning the provision of roads and other public transport without making a decision on the spatial issue of the distribution of housing? That is what it is doing.
The spatial plan is the responsibility of the Minister for the Environment and Local Government and will be completed in draft form by the end of this year. The discussions and dialogue necessary to complete a proper agreed national spatial plan are ongoing and relevant decisions within the Department which deal with roads, infrastructure, housing and sewerage are all working in tandem.
Will the Taoiseach agree that in reply to a question I tabled he indicated that responsibility for implementation of the £48,000 million national development plan has been entrusted to the Cabinet sub-committee on infrastructural development? In the course of the sub-committee's deliberations, for which the Taoiseach, not the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, has overall responsibility, has it been presented with a list or map outlining the areas currently zoned for residential or urban development as distinct from agricultural use? Have any of the committee's decisions on infrastructural development been informed by gearing the investment to areas of existing zoned land or to areas not zoned?
We are dealing with decisions made by the Government on foot of the recommendations.
All these issues are being considered by the Department of the Environment and Local Government and were presented by the Minister and the Minister of State in the course of these discussions. If I was to answer all the Minister's questions, there would be no point in having environment or transport questions.
I agree but my question is fundamentally important.
The answer to the Deputy's question is yes.
Is the Taoiseach saying that the sub-committee has been presented with a list of zoned areas?
We are dealing with matters internal to the committee.
The Department of the Environment and Local Government has all those.
That is not my question. Has the committee seen this document?
I have seen them. I have seen where the rail lines and extensions to rail lines will be. All these issues have been put to the committee.
Where will the Navan rail line run?
I have ruled on this matter.
I am at a slight disadvantage in that I have not seen the decisions taken by the Government on Tuesday. Following these decisions, where stands the commitment made prior to the last election to eco-audit all major infrastructural developments? Does that still form part of the Government's strategy and when will it commence? Is the Taoiseach confident the shortcomings in the national development plan in terms of sustainability, as cited by the European Commission, can be overcome? Have those shortcomings been addressed since the European Commission has threatened to withhold funding to Ireland unless it can be established that the plan is in line with principles of sustainability?
The Minister for the Environment and Local Government made clear that he supports eco-auditing. The Deputy knows it has been taken into account in major developments. In the discussions on the national development plan we have to agree with the Commission on the issues it has raised but I do not see any of those issues causing us difficulties.
