Seanad Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 1 Jun 2010

Vol. 203 No. 2

Planning Issues

Senator Brian Ó Domhnaill

This issue relates to access onto national secondary routes, one of which, the N56, goes through a large part of south-west Donegal. There are other such routes in Galway, Kerry and other parts of the country. There is a distinct difficulty in Donegal for individuals seeking to obtain planning permission for one-off houses along that road, which stretches from Letterkenny in the centre of County Donegal across west Donegal and back to the Five Points in Killybegs. The National Roads Authority, under legislation and the policy direction of the Development Control Advice and Guidelines 1982 and the Policy and Planning Framework for Roads 1985, is objecting to such planning applications. This is creating major difficulties for families and young people who have land along that route.

While the planning section in Donegal County Council, in so far as possible and taking local planning guidelines into consideration, will look sympathetically at all local indigenous applications, there is a major difficulty to be taken into consideration due to the National Roads Authority, NRA, lodging so many planning objections. Many of the objections are filed at local level but the NRA regularly appeals decisions made by the local authority to An Bord Pleanála, which is quite alarming. The issue has been discussed with the National Roads Authority by Donegal County Council. I also had the opportunity to discuss it with the authority. The authority clearly outlined that its hands are tied due to the 1982 and 1985 guidelines.

When I raised this issue 12 months ago in the Seanad, I was advised that the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government had begun discussions with the Department of Transport and was considering developing planning guidelines and perhaps introducing new guidelines on a statutory basis by amending section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. A working group was due to be established but I am not sure if it has arrived at any conclusive answers. It is a major issue because there is no distinction in the current guidelines between a national primary and a national secondary route. In Donegal, the national primary routes are faster and better roads, while the national secondary routes are almost equivalent to regional roads. A distinction must be made while, of course, taking into consideration the safety implications associated with roads. Indeed, regrettably, there were two road deaths in Donegal in recent weeks which occurred on a regional road.

We hope there will be movement on this issue as it has dragged on for some time. Many young people are waiting to lodge their planning applications. They cannot do so until the guidelines are changed and new guidelines brought forward. Perhaps the Minister will provide an update.

Deputy Billy Kelleher

There have been various Government statements on planning policy and national roads over the past number of years, going back to the Development Control Advice and Guidelines issued in 1982 and the more comprehensive statement in 1985, Policy and Planning Framework for Roads, by the then Department of the Environment. Policy statements made since then have been broadly based on the 1985 document, the most recent being the National Roads Authority's Policy Statement on Development Management and Access to National Roads in May 2006. While specific responsibility for roads policy now rests with the Minister for Transport and his Department, responsibility for planning policy rests with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and it is important there is continued and consistent alignment between these closely linked policies.

In this collaborative context, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the Department of Transport have agreed to review the relationship between transport and planning policies and, in particular, the need for both sets of policies to be consistent and complementary. Consequently, they are preparing to publish for public consultation guidelines on planning policy and roads which will have statutory effect under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 when they are finalised, following consideration of any submissions and comments received. Led by the two Departments and the NRA, a working group was established to co-ordinate the process, comprising key stakeholders and including representative senior officials from local authorities with both an urban and rural planning perspective.

The preparation of these guidelines is designed to encourage, in line with international best practice, efficient transport planning which will underpin a shift towards more sustainable forms of travel and transport. The guidelines will seek to guide development to the most appropriate locations by ensuring transport and land use planning considerations are taken into account at the development plan stage. Appropriate and effective alignment of this kind plays an important part in protecting the State's investment in national roads and facilitating reasonable development proposals that meet road design and safety criteria and that otherwise accord with proper planning and sustainable development.

The Roads Act 1993 sets out how public roads are classified into national, regional and local roads. National roads are generally arterial routes that cater for strategic and through traffic and which carry high traffic volumes that operate at high speeds. National roads are classified as either national primary or national secondary and this classification system operates as an aid to the management of roads consistent with the particular functions appropriate to roads of different classes. The guidelines highlight the need for early engagement and dialogue between the NRA and planning authorities in respect of devising appropriate policies and objectives for managing development within the broader context of the national road network and functions, having regard to these aforementioned road classifications. It is about agreeing a sustainable and plan-led approach between the NRA and planning authorities and the implementation of appropriate development management standards, for example, by subjecting new development proposals to road safety audits and other policy considerations.

However, as the guidelines will indicate, it is not simply a matter of differentiating between national primary and secondary roads for the purposes of facilitating planning approvals on national secondary roads. National secondary roads must be considered in the overall context of the national road system in that they may provide now or in the future a strategic function along all or part of their routes, and planning authorities need to ensure that substantial public investment in our national transport infrastructure is not eroded by a lack of overall plan-led development.

The Minister expects to publish the guidelines shortly as a public consultation draft. I urge all stakeholders, including Members of the Seanad, local authorities, chambers of commerce, business groups and others who are interested in this issue to examine these draft guidelines when they issue. The Minister would welcome their comments before the guidelines are finalised later in the year. This is an issue that puts people's lives on hold to a certain extent. It is important to bring clarity to it once and for all when it is put into legislation later this year.