Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 July 2018
2222. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of county councils that have county transport plans; his plans to make it a statutory requirement for each county council to have a plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33681/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraPlanning and transport policies are highly interdependent. A key element in the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2010 was the introduction of the requirement for the inclusion of an evidence-based “Core Strategy” in local authority development plans. The Core Strategy of local authority development plans outline a number of factors including the detail of transport plans. In that way all county development plans address transport as part of their statutory plan process and include objectives for the development of transport.
The 3 Regional Assemblies, established as part of the Government’s reform of local government, are currently preparing their own Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies (RSESs) in accordance with the Framework set by the National Planning Framework. These are intended to replace the Regional Planning Guidelines (RPGs) and are expected to be completed by early 2019. These regional strategies will also include new Metropolitan Area Strategic Plans for the cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford.
In order to ensure the RSESs are practical and realistically aligned to the level of available investment resources, each Regional Assembly has establishing high-level steering groups comprising senior officials from local authorities, Government Departments/Agencies and commercial-State companies to oversee the preparation of the RSESs. Both the National Transport Authority (NTA) and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) contribute at these steering groups. County and City Development Plan review cycles will then fall in to line with their respective regional strategies, ensuring that the shared vision is carried through to the local planning level.
Establishment of the National Transport Authority (NTA) in 2009 was intended to deliver a more focused and integrated approach to the planning and delivery of integrated transport infrastructure and services both on a national basis generally and especially in the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) where the NTA has a more detailed remit. The NTA has responsibility for preparing a Transport Strategy for the GDA, alongside the responsibility for preparing the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy by the Regional Assembly and both must be consistent with each other. The statutory requirement for mutual consistency between the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy and the Transport Strategy is unique to the GDA and is not a statutory requirement in any other part of the country. However, the NTA has worked successfully on an administrative, non-statutory basis to assist several local authorities across Ireland’s cities in preparing transport related strategies or implementing transport related projects. For example, the NTA, in conjunction with Galway City Council, also produced a transport plan for Galway City (the ‘Galway Transport Strategy’) which was incorporated into the Galway City Development Plan 2017 -2023. The NTA is currently preparing a Transport Strategy for the Cork Metropolitan Area, and will commence work on a transport strategy for the Limerick Metropolitan Area shortly.
Finally, the NPF includes a policy objective to extend the statutory arrangements between spatial and transport planning in the Greater Dublin Area to other cities to strengthen the levels of integration between spatial planning and transport planning across the country, to the benefit of the economy and society.
