Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to discuss the review of the national development plan, NDP. I offer my apologies for being unable to appear two weeks ago due to an extended Cabinet meeting. I understand the committee had a very informative meeting with the Secretary General and officials of one of my Departments. I am pleased to be present today to discuss the NDP further with the committee.

To pick up on some of the observations made by the committee two weeks ago, such as that the NDP will represent the most significant NDP since the foundation of the State, there are certainly key features of the new NDP that will differ from previous ones. The most striking feature is that it will be built around the national strategic outcomes in the national planning framework. In taking this approach of focusing on long-term outcomes, there are potentially many pathways to attaining these outcomes. What makes this NDP review particularly challenging is that we have found ourselves in a state of flux so soon after the NDP was published and we are now in a period of rapid adjustment caused by many different converging factors.

Within this period of change, there are opportunities to alter what we do and ensure we do things better. Now is the appropriate time to step back and look at our overall strategy in terms of achieving these long-term strategic outcomes. As the Secretary General of one of my Departments indicated two weeks ago, the focus on the national strategic outcomes rather than projects gives us the flexibility, if necessary, to adjust, change tack, reprioritise or accelerate certain aspects of investment.

As was discussed during that meeting with regard to the sectoral strategy aspect of the review, the Department has decided to base its NDP submission to the NDP review on the draft national investment framework for transport in Ireland, NIFTI, rather than its predecessor, the strategic investment framework for land transport, SIFLT. In considering whether this is the right approach, first, I absolutely agree with the committee that the NIFTI approach must go to public consultation at the earliest possible opportunity in order that the consultation process takes place prior to the conclusion of the NDP. I think the draft NIFTI is a very thorough and thoughtful piece of work. I hope the public will engage with it in an enthusiastic and robust debate, and I look forward to the public consultation phase from this perspective.

The draft NIFTI identifies four unranked priorities, namely, mobility of people and goods in urban areas, enhanced regional accessibility, protection and renewal, and decarbonisation. These priorities reflect and support the national strategic outcomes pertinent to transport. The draft NIFTI is the product of several years of research and analysis and is designed specifically to support attainment of the national strategic outcomes in a way the SIFLT was not. The completion of the research and draft NIFTI meant that the Department was able to use up-to-date research and analysis in considering how it can stay on track to meet its NDP objectives as part of this review. Failing to do so would have led to a significant gap between the ambition of the Government, which is to align resources to attain national strategic objectives in an evidence-based manner, and the Department, as it would have involved failing to use detailed research and analysis now available to it to test at a theoretical level our current strategies against the national strategic objectives.

My intention is to negotiate funding for the Department which results in a very significant capital allocation that supports each of the identified strategic priorities. The NDP review will assist in ensuring that investment is broadly aligned in support of the national strategic objectives and, if that is not the case, what needs to change.

On the issue of compact growth ambitions, the evidence demonstrates that the most productive strategy the Department can pursue when the goal is sustainably to absorb a rapidly growing population is to expand sustainable mobility capacity within major cities and towns. There are two main investment strands in this regard. First, in gross investment terms, it will take a significant share of total funding to improve public transport capacity within cities and towns because interventions are required in cities and towns that are complex and typically involve attaining mass transport capacity in built-up residential areas. Second, it is vital we fund active travel on a significant scale due to its manifold social, economic and personal transport benefits, especially over short distances in urban and rural areas.

Enhanced regional accessibility is also identified as a key priority. As the committee noted two weeks ago, there are significant opportunities to improve regional connectivity for rail and I am on the record with regard to the significant untapped potential in this context. In terms of roads, we can be far more ambitious in how we approach road design. Although we have made significant progress in building a national road network, traditionally we have not systemically evaluated multi-modal options during the planning and design phases of road construction. We have all too frequently treated public transport capacity on roads as an afterthought and left active travel nowhere. This must be addressed. Although the advent of electric vehicles, EVs, will, over time, tackle carbon emissions on roads, EVs on their own will not solve road congestion or the phenomenon of induced demand and may contribute to continued urban sprawl. These unintended consequences are not in anyone's interest, least of all those who live in badly located housing estates disconnected from nearby urban centres, road users stuck in traffic or residents of neighbourhoods plagued by rat-running or pass-through congestion.

In designing road networks, we need to take all these factors into account.

In order to allow time for questions, if the Chairman agrees, I will conclude my opening statement.