Ms Deirdre Fallon:

We thank the committee for the invitation to attend the meeting this morning on the NPF. The Irish Planning Institute, IPI, welcomes the preparation of the framework and believes the work represents a major opportunity to consider, analyse and prepare evidence-based policy that can address many of the fundamental issues that will affect the future development of the country. As a policy adopted by the Government, it should form the means of co-ordinating activity across all the Departments by setting out clear spatial-development strategies, which can be used to direct funding for infrastructure, and by integrating planning with other considerations, such as climate change, rural development, landscape, built, cultural and natural heritage assets, energy planning, and infrastructure, from green infrastructure to road, sea, air, cycling, energy and rail infrastructure.

The institute believes there are a number of specific issues of which cognisance should be taken in developing the framework. I will outline them briefly. First, it is critical that the framework be supported by a strong evidence base, which must take account of the results of the most recent census. In developing the framework, there should be awareness that resource management and planning are inextricably linked. Population growth and urbanisation have given rise to very significant demand for resources. Ensuring the management and efficient use of resources will be a central tenet of spatial planning in the years ahead. Therefore, the planning system must play a central role in the formulation and implementation of policy on such critical issues as climate change, energy, transport, industry, raw materials, agriculture and food production, fisheries, biodiversity, regional economic development, and critical infrastructure delivery, to name but a few. The NPF, as the overarching national planning policy, has a fundamental role in this.

Energy needs to be a central concept within the NPF, and renewable energy policy should be considered as a spatial component. Strong and unambiguous implementation policies in respect of achieving a low-carbon society by 2050 must be set out in the framework and in subsequent regional planning policy and county or city development plans.

The NPF forms an ideal policy document to consider the implications of marine spatial planning for local authorities with a coastline. It is vital that the national marine spatial plan be consistent with the policies of the national policy framework and that this consistency is carried through in the hierarchy of plans, from national to local level.

A consistent approach is needed to deal with the visual impact of offshore wind farms, coastal erosion prevention and mitigation, the protection of sensitive parts of the coastline, and areas where marine infrastructure is likely to have spatial implications for the coastal zone, as with the landings of cables and pipelines, port development, off-shore oil and gas exploration, etc.

The NPF can provide such a consistent framework.

We believe that a radical revision of the national policy on rural one-off housing is needed. The current policies in development plans are too permissive as is evident from the high number of planning permissions. For example, between 2010 and 2013, one-off units represented between 30% and 52% of all housing units granted permission each year. The repot Rebuilding Ireland – an Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness stated that in the year end to August 2016, one-off houses represented 42% of housing commencements, an increase from 39% in the preceding period. There are urgent reasons to review current policies in respect of rural housing, for example, the demise of small towns and villages in rural areas, car-based mobility vis-à-visenergy policies, objections to wind farms and electricity pylons and climate change. The NPF should adopt new national guidelines in this area.

Ireland will continue to need to develop large-scale strategic infrastructure. During the period of the national spatial strategy, NSS, such infrastructural developments included the Corrib gas line, midlands wind farms, electricity transmission networks, a processing site for liquid petroleum gas, waste incinerator projects and port land works. Each of these had to be decided by An Bord Pleanála in the absence of a spatial policy framework at national level. The NPF provides an opportunity to develop such a framework and to correct this.

The experience with the NSS has shown how a policy that is based on one spatial development perspective can be highly vulnerable to changes in economic and population performance during the plan period. The Gateway strategy did not prove as successful as hoped. While population initially grew faster than projected, it later slowed down. It is suggested that the NPF should make use of the scenario approach to test different future paths of development, including Brexit, further policy integration with Northern Ireland and achievement of the targets in the energy white paper, which would suggest a radical change in mobility patterns, etc. It would be very beneficial if the NPF included a summary of economic forecasting models and potential outcomes which have influenced the preparation of the framework.

The investment in the national motorway network has radically changed the accessibility of the regions within Ireland. The creation of this network will put continued pressure on the development of land adjacent to this network, particular in the vicinity of motorway interchanges. It is important that a national policy is developed to protect these areas, both for suitable development but also prevent unsuitable dispersed commercial and residential development occurring.

The NPF provides an opportunity to adopt a national landscape strategy which could address national parks, areas of high scenic amenity and cultural landscapes in need of protection. Such a strategy could be integrated with an ecological strategy that seeks to maximise the potential of the European designated sites by linking these sites into a national ecological network.

The degree of spatial and functional integration between the Republic and Northern Ireland and between the main urban development areas of Dublin and Belfast is highly uncertain in light of Brexit and it is vital that consideration is given to this in the preparation of the NPF. We again thank the members for their time and the committee staff for their assistance. We are available to take questions or comments.