Mr. Niall Cussen:

The committee has yet again demonstrated its expertise and knowledge because its members have extensive experience in planning and development matters in their areas, working with the legislation and policy. They have always demonstrated a deep understanding of this. The central message in our initial presentation was to get across the sense that we are embarking on an implementation process. It is very important to have regular interaction with the committee, to come back and test out our approaches to implementation with it and seek out its views and guidance on priorities, etc. This is a whole-of-Government initiative and it is one the committee members support directly or indirectly because of the importance of having a strategic plan after the difficult years we have come through. It can always be enhanced, or particular aspects of its implementation can be brought out. It is important to have an agile and a responsive implementation process. This is a very important document but it is only a framework and requires further fleshing out. We are alive to all the issues the committee has raised and need to have continual engagement with the committee on how to grapple with those issues and so on because there is a lot of work to be done.

I will quickly run through some of the contributions made and make one or two comments in response. I will then call on my colleagues to deal with a number of aspects raised. I am happy for the dialogue to continue for as long as the committee wishes.

In response to Senator Boyhan's comments, there is obviously a different forum for that whole Dáil approval piece and the legal advice, to which Deputy Ó Broin alluded. One of the things of which we must be conscious is the fact that to ensure there was a planning framework for capital investment, we had to push on with it. We engaged in as much consultation as we could and reached out far and wide across the country on its development. We need to be conscious that the practicalities and fairness have a retrospective approval process, having listened to, and taken on board, all the views heretofore.

To reassure Senator Boyhan on his key point about capacity-building, I was with the regional assembly in Wexford a couple of weeks ago and spent a long day and evening explaining the plan in detail. We will be at the Local Authorities Members Association, LAMA, Conference in Donegal after Easter and we will go wherever we are invited to build that capacity, awareness and understanding of the evolution and implementation of the framework.

The regional spatial economic strategies will be the cockpit for how the more technical aspects of the framework will be worked out. It would be very wrong of us to hand down a tablet of stone from the top, setting out detailed population targets and so on for a 20 year plus framework. That would be a very unwieldy and rigid system. Much more appropriately the regional assemblies have the scope to work with us around a table and go through those technical aspects.

The planning framework is a place-making strategy. Population targets and figures are important metrics in setting the background to the planning but place making involves much more than numbers and spreadsheets and setting population targets. Far too often in the past we have embarked on local planning processes that may have set very ambitious growth targets and in many cases, particularly in towns in the commuter belt, we have achieved or exceeded those targets but we know there are many problems on the ground in the way of the adequacy of public services, the fact people do not live and work in the same place and all the pressures that committee members have mentioned in respect of long-distance commuting and so on. Place making and population targets are not necessarily the same thing. It is very important to get the thinking joined up on that.

I was struck by Deputy Ó Broin’s and Deputy Casey's contributions. I am sure our colleagues in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the transport agencies would support us in saying that there might be a merit in having a joint session on planning and transport integration.

It is important that those elements are in synch and that we use the assets we have to the best of our ability and to the maximum extent possible.

On Clonburris, I might digress but it is related to the point Deputy Casey raised. Previous Governments made the investments etc. We have the good fortune of having invested in upgrades of our mainline rail network. We have a physical infrastructure, as the Deputy alluded to, that is capable of being sweated more. That is happening in Clonburris. While the DART project and the upgrades necessary to deliver that in its full glory will necessarily take some years to put in place because of the engineering and all of that, we have seen signs of good innovative thinking from the transport agencies and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. Ordering a fleet of hybrid trains offers a much better operational approach. They can integrate seamlessly with the DART because they can go from diesel power to electric power, obviating the need for people to change trains in places such as Bray.

As members of the committee will know there is an ongoing upgrade which is progressing very well providing more rail services from the west of the city into Connolly Station using the Phoenix Park tunnel and the northern suburban rail line. From talking to my colleagues in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, I know that is an area that once fleet enhancements and other bits and pieces are put in place, they have significant plans to augment that. It is incorrect to suggest that the progression of a strategic development zone such as Clonburris would have to await the full deployment of the DART upgrade. Many things are being done in the interim.

Deputy Casey asked about the capacity of infrastructure and whether we are aligning that infrastructure correctly with focused, prioritised, proper plan-led development in Wicklow or wherever it is in the greater Dublin area. There may be merit in having a joint session involving our colleagues from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. It is always good to get transport planners, spatial planners, and decision and policy makers such as members of the committee together in the one room. It is very important to have a joined-up approach.

Deputy O'Dowd asked about Drogheda. My comments on the regional strategy teasing that out in more detail, address that as part of the regional, spatial and economic strategy process. IDA Ireland and the development agencies have bought into that process and are obliged to follow that process through with their own strategies and so on. Ms Walsh will give more detail on the public consultation process and the metrics regarding the east, the Dublin to Belfast corridor, Drogheda and so on.

Deputy Ó Broin raised some concerns about the Dublin population increase landing maybe in the western suburbs and outlying commuter areas. Mr. Hogan might deal with this in more detail. The planning framework is very ambitious for actually landing considerably more of that within the city core, within the canal ring and within the existing built-up area. That speaks to our plans for the regeneration agency and getting a better bang for the State's buck out of the publicly owned lands we already have, particularly across the broader State-owned enterprise landscape etc.

I understand the Deputy's concerns. That was motivating us in the first place to have an ambitious strategy for urban consolidation, compact urban growth and so on. It would not be a good outcome for the planning framework if the growth of Dublin were to effectively land to the west or pushing out into the outlying areas.

I spoke about the public transport issue. Mr. Hogan will deal with the question about spatial dimension to social disadvantage, where it is to be addressed and so on. Mr. Hogan and Ms Walsh might also deal with the all-island dimension and our engagement with our colleagues in the Northern system and where that is going.

I hope that is a reasonably comprehensive overview. Deputy Casey also asked about HDNA and rural and so forth. I ask Mr. Hogan to pick up on some of those points. That was just a sweep through and I might have missed a good few things.