Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the committee for its invitation. As Minister of State with responsibility for housing and planning, and on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, I am delighted to be here with Mr. Niall Cussen and Mr. Paul Hogan. I welcome this opportunity to listen to members and discuss the committee's views on the national planning framework, NPF. It is important that the committee has a role and will also feed into the process. I am pleased the committee is up and running in time to do that. We made a presentation to the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government and we had a good discussion there. That committee is co-ordinating the message and feedback from both Houses of the Oireachtas. We also had a good debate on the issue in both Seanad Éireann and Dáil Éireann.

Today, I will put forward the Government's views on what Ireland 2040 is aimed at delivering for rural Ireland and for communities in Ireland, both urban and rural. Ireland 2040, which is the draft national planning framework, draws on input and advice from expert economic and analysis from the ESRI and on environmental assessments from RPS consultants. Most importantly, it draws on the views and inputs of a broad range of people and stakeholders across the spectrum at national, regional and local level.

The development of the national planning framework has taken place over a three-year period. It included approximately 40 stakeholder events right around the country. On top of the hundreds of submissions received in the build-up to the publication of the draft NPF, we have received more than 1,000 submissions which we are determined should influence the final plan. The NPF is primarily about planning properly for what will be one of the fastest growing economies in Europe in the coming decades. The plan will ensure the potential of all regions, and all parts of the regions, is fully realised, whether that potential is in an urban or rural context. The framework is about regions working more effectively and both urban and rural development policies working in partnership for the ultimate benefit of the communities we serve. The framework sets a long-term strategic planning and investment context for Ireland over the next 20 years. It includes broad principles to better manage future population and economic growth than was the case in the past. We see it as the business case for investment and it is important to look at that as well as the regional strategies that will feed out of this over 2018. We must bear in mind that we need to plan for a population increase of 1 million extra people, an extra 660,000 people at work and the provision of at least 500,000 extra homes. However, this is not a top-down plan. To work, the national planning framework needs to be truly our plan. The national planning framework will also be further expanded and developed at regional and local levels by the regional spatial and economic strategies, RSESs, and ultimately, in local authority statutory plans. The work on the regional strategies will happen mainly in 2018 and the follow-on will be in the county development plans from 2019 onwards.

Approximately 1,050 submissions were received in the final public consultation. We are looking carefully at the submissions in shaping the final document. Mr. Paul Hogan brings them home with him most nights and he is going through them bit by bit and getting through them. It is important that we hear everyone's views and that is why I again emphasise the benefit of the chance to engage with committee members today to hear their views and make sure we feed them into the final version of the publication. Moreover, looking to the themes raised by the submissions, emerging areas for further drafting include regions, more detail on regional development, and, critically, rural drivers outside the five main cities. When we engaged with the regional authorities, the issue came up quite a lot. They wanted to beef up the content in the plan on the regions and for that to be clearly outlined. I imagine that will probably form part of the discussion here today also.

Another theme is moving from business as usual to compact development and building in more scope to gradually phase in a transition from our current quite expansive or business as usual development model to a more compact development model as set out in the national planning framework. The key is to develop brownfield sites. We want to see that in urban settings, especially in cities where an extra 40% of the increase in population could happen within the city boundaries and we utilise the land in a much more compact way. A further theme is changing work patterns. There is a stronger recognition of the impacts of changing work patterns, technology and connectivity and the scope for people to work from home in that context.

Under the theme of housing and rural development the intention is to reflect the fact that wider social as well as economic considerations can be reasonable justifications for provision of housing in rural areas. That is something we can touch on later also.

In terms of more specifics on investment, with further details emerging through the draft capital investment plan from Departments and sectors, there is more scope to co-ordinate and cross-reference those in ensuring a joined up approach between the NPF and the capital plan. We are very clear on that aspect. The Minister, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, will bring forward his ten-year capital investment plan, which potentially involves €100 billion of taxpayers' money, and we want to make sure they are aligned and that one leads on to the other. The failing of some plans in the past is that they did not have the backing of capital investment and infrastructure behind them. It is important that we get that right and co-ordinate it as well.

There is much in Ireland 2040 for rural areas, the most important being that the framework is about having an overall plan for the country's strategic development, urban and rural working together for the overall benefit of our communities and our future. Throughout the plan there are many references to partnership. One will not have rural development without partnership with urban settings in strong local villages and towns of all sizes as well as cities. The best rural areas will develop in partnership with towns and cities. A link is required between the two in order to develop. In areas of decline, there is a clear absence of a link with a large town or city that can have an influence on their development.

The national planning framework will strengthen rural Ireland, not weaken it. There have been suggestions that the national planning framework will weaken rural Ireland. Those suggestions are somewhat mischievous and quite misleading. We hear that quite a lot. We wish to be very clear; that is not the intention of the plan. The opportunity to have a discussion in that regard today is worthwhile. Carefully reading the draft national planning framework, one will see that it contains many different kinds of practical planning, development and investment policies, which will benefit rural Ireland by driving plan-led and community-led regeneration initiatives, aimed at repurposing rural economies to benefit from new technology-driven economic activities and new living possibilities and growing the regions outside Dublin and the east by more than would occur under a business as usual scenario. It is clear that if we do not implement a new national planning framework and put in place a plan like this in the years' ahead, there will be further rural decline because the development will continue to focus on the east. We are trying to push out development and get the balance right. The concept behind this plan is to balance development through the various regions. We also wish to improve connectivity to weaker areas such as to the northern and western parts of the country.

One of the main challenges in rural development in Ireland today is the necessity to create new opportunities for the renewal and sustainability of rural economies. People often talk about the decline of rural economies in the past seven or eight years, but that is not the reality. There have probably been 30 or 40 years of decline in some rural areas that we are trying to rejuvenate. That is the reality because we have not planned to bring life back into those rural areas. It is often assumed the decline has happened in the past decade but that is not the case and the statistics will bear that out. If one goes to many smaller towns and villages across rural Ireland, one will see the empty buildings, the shops that are closed and schools that are under threat. If those places are to have any future, we must get people to live again in those empty streets and empty buildings, plan and co-ordinate the future and set out the economic purpose of each town and village in relation to the cities and regions. The national planning framework takes up this challenge, proposing smart growth initiatives to attract people and jobs into small towns and villages, harnessing their attractions in quality of life terms and connecting them to the digital, connected and shared economy of the future.

In addition, chapter 4 of the draft framework sets out 14 specific national planning and development objectives for rural Ireland. Those support and build upon the Action Plan for Rural Development for the longer term and address key areas such as housing, economic development and infrastructure. We must match the emptiness and dereliction of many of the smaller towns with the desires of many people seeking the opportunity to build their own homes. People find it difficult to do so because no one will sell them a site or, if they did, it would cost a fortune because there are no services. In order to assist them, the national planning framework proposes that local authorities will be supported in undertaking the necessary land acquisition, site preparation and local infrastructure provision to deliver self-build development options in smaller towns and villages. That is how we will breathe new life into rural communities.

Like many members, I come from a rural background. While many people want to live in a rural area, that does not always mean that they want to live in a one-off house. Deputy Eamon Ó Cuív is panicking, but he should not worry because one-off housing is provided for in the framework. Some people want to live in or on the edge of a village, but that option was never available because it was too expensive and services were not available. A balance needs to be struck in order that they can live on their own land, given the economic and social need to do so, while having the option to be part of a local village community which has been declining for a number of years and which could be serviced much better.

We have a sense that there may be a misconception that in its focus on building up rural communities and particularly smaller towns and villages that the NPF will discourage rural communities in being able to meet housing needs in rural areas. That is not the case because the facts show that Ireland meets a large part of its housing need in rural areas and, more specifically, the countryside. Last year 50% of housing was built in rural areas and in some of the more rural counties the figure was closer to 80%. In our discussions at county and regional level the feedback is that people assume fewer houses are being built in rural areas, but that is not the case. The statistics for the past four or five years show that almost always one-off houses comprise 50% of housing. That might not suit people's views, but they are the facts and we do not make them up. As a Minister of State who comes from a rural area, I want to see vibrant rural communities and rural economies. I realise however, as does the Government, that alongside a lived-in rural landscape, we must not neglect the renewal of existing built-up areas and the communities that live in them. That is true, be it in inner city areas, market town centres or the myriad smaller towns and villages across the country. For many years sections of many communities have been allowed to decline. The plan tries to focus on areas of decline in large towns and small villages and how to address them in the longer term. The decline will not be addressed in six months or a year or two. However, in a planned way we can breathe life back into these communities.

In July the Government made a decision to co-ordinate the NPF with the ten-year capital investment plan, thus ensuring alignment between strategic planning and investment. That is key because there was not always that alignment in the past. There was the intention and hope, but it did not happen. We need to track the plan to ensure it will happen this time. We are working closely with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to ensure an effective alignment between the NPF and the mid-term review of the capital plan and longer term infrastructural planning. In ensuring close alignment of the capital plan with the NPF we will avoid the mistakes of the past, when investment under the National Development Plan 2000-2006 came before the 2002 national spatial strategy which was too diversely focused. Through this alignment we are essentially putting our money where our mouth is. Capital investment will underpin the planning framework in order that these plans will be real, their progress can be tracked and we can all buy into them.

Enactment of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016 which we hope to get back into the Houses before Christmas but which will probably not happen until early January will place the NPF on a statutory footing. IThrough the new office of the planning regulator, it will put in place a regular process which will include Oireachtas involvement of monitoring, review and updating of the framework, which is key. We want Oireachtas Members to be involved in tracking the framework and making sure the Government will stick to it and what we buy into it and want to invest in will happen. The final framework document will then be brought to the Government for approval to publish. It will be followed by a strategic environmental assessment and the finalising of translation, design and printing. It is envisaged that the final NPF will be published in full in the first quarter of 2018.

I am certain that members will agree with the sentiment that the actions to revitalise towns, villages and communities outlined in the draft framework are good for regions, communities and all parts of our dynamic and proud country. It is important that we get on with our work to put the plans in place. We are here to get the committee's feedback and make changes to the framework. There were 1,000 submissions received which we are teasing through to make sure we will reflect all of them as best we can in order that we can achieve a balance. We need to support the Ireland 2040 process in order that Europe's fastest growing economy for the next decade or so will have a real chance to make lasting change preparing us for a better planned and better future for the people and communities, both urban and rural. It is about our future and that of our children and it is important that we get it right.

I thank members for their time and look forward to further engagement with them.