I am accompanied by Mr. Brian Wilson of the Green Party, Mr. Willie Clarke of Sinn Féin and Mr. John Dallat of the SDLP. I am the chairman of the Northern Ireland Regional Transport Committee and am from the Ulster Unionist Party. I thank the chairman for the invitation to attend today. I realise the presentation has been distributed. Members of the committee will be glad to hear that I have no intention of going through it sheet by sheet. However, I wish to raise and identify some issues.
I wish to focus on the committee's ongoing work and its priorities. Members will be pleased to hear about any work the Joint Committee on Transport is doing in these areas and any experiences and lessons it has to share on these topics. Rapid transit for Belfast is a topic the committee has considered in some detail. We have considered the Department's strategic outline case and we are moving towards an outline business case and the detailed design stage. Several route options have been identified in Belfast, including east way, west way and Titanic quarter, with potential links to Queen's University Belfast and the hospitals in the vicinity.
At this stage the recommendation is for a bus-based rapid transit system. The committee has seen some examples of bus-based systems in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Eindhoven last year. We understand the Chairman has a keen interest in the subject and that rapid transit pilots are being considered for a number of cities in Ireland. My committee may be interested to hear the chairman's views on those issues. We have started work on a new inquiry into sustainable transport which will examine balancing the environment and the social and economic sustainability of transport. Given the importance of transport related emissions to the overall level of carbon emissions, the committee is very keen to progress this vital issue.
The committee held a stakeholder engagement event in February 2009 and the engagement report will inform the committee's terms of reference. The main areas of interest are achieving a sustainable economy, living within environmental limits, ensuring a strong, healthy and just society, and the usefulness and achievability of existing commitments and targets. We anticipate issuing a public call for evidence before the summer recess with a view to taking evidence at the beginning of the new session in September 2009.
Public transport reform is also of interest to the committee. The proposals for reform, which include bus and rail public transport services, involve moving to a three-tier system. The top tier would comprise the Government, responsible for broad policy, including legislation and regulations. The middle tier would be responsible for designing and managing services and securing their provision. The third tier would comprise transport operators. The key elements driving the need for reform include a clearer delineation of roles and responsibilities split between designers and operators, the need for a lead client to specify and manage contracts, EU regulation, pressures to deliver improved efficiency and ensure value for money, and the desirability of moving to a model of revenue funding for services instead of capital funding to enhance accountability and transparency, which the committee believes is very important.
Proposals are currently at the outline business case stage and we anticipate moving to detailed business case stage before the summer recess. The committee has also been working with the Department on the development of the ten-year review of the regional development strategy since last year. We are keen to see a revised regional development review that benefits all parts of the region, helps reduce our carbon footprint, maximises the potential of our cities, towns, villages and rural communities, strengthens Belfast as the economic driver of the region and reinforces Derry as the gateway city of the north west and improves connections within the region, Northern Ireland's neighbours and the rest of the world.
The review of the regional development strategy is feeding into the review of the regional transportation strategy, which is at a very early stage, and the committee is looking forward to working on this issue. It is also aware that work is ongoing, through the British-Irish Council, on draft collaborative spatial planning frameworks examining common needs and better targeting of infrastructure investment. In addition, it is working with the Department on the development of legislation in the areas of ports policy and roads. The committee also engages in quarterly scrutiny of departmental performance against its budget and programme for Government targets.
One of the key issues for it is the issue of the reform of water and sewerage services. At present we are in the middle of an inquiry into the management of risk in the water company and are considering draft ministerial guidance on social and environmental issues as part of the regulatory price control for 2010-2012. As this is outside the remit of the committee, I will not expand any further on this topic. I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to meet with the committee and I look forward to working together for the betterment of all of the people who live on the island.