Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone for making submissions to the committee. I apologise; I am hopping between this meeting and a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine this afternoon. That is how busy we are. I have read all of the submissions. It is a really exciting issue. Before I ask anyone any questions, I would like to draw particular attention to a document commissioned by Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII. It is called Travelling in a Woman’s Shoes and was delivered by the consultancy Arup. In a week when we have seen so much about vulnerability and women and transport, it is a must read. It is a very important document full of policy recommendations. It focuses on women and safety, and talks about why they feel they cannot travel within their towns and communities, particularly when coming home from the cities they work in. It also refers to issues around vulnerability. It makes for awkward reading but is a real wake-up call with regard to planning.

When we talk about transport planning, we need to look at this issue and ask ourselves why this report has been sitting on desks since July 2020. Again, it is called Travelling in a Woman’s Shoes. It is a call to action and I will circulate it in the next five or ten minutes. It is something all of us should be mindful of when considering transport policy and why people do not opt to walk or cycle. The report includes some very stark figures and qualitative research showing the reason that women in particular are using private cars to travel short distances, which is that it allows them to feel safe. It is a real wake-up call for every one of us.

I will not deal with all of the submissions. They were very comprehensive. We had an opportunity to read them. I will focus on just two. I have a few questions for the Heritage Council and a few for Technological University Dublin. I thank Ms Teehan from the Heritage Council for the comprehensive submission she made today and for the appendices that accompany it. Within that submission, she talks about the establishment of a unit within Government to deliver the collaborative town centre health check programme nationally as part of the town centres first policy. Will she touch on that? I will put three or four questions to her before asking her to answer.

Ms Teehan is suggesting or recommending a national view. She also mentions issues in respect of compulsory purchase orders and compulsory sale orders similar to those used in Denmark and Scotland. Will she briefly tease out what differences there are between what is going on here and what is going on in Denmark and Scotland? What have we not talked about or included in our policy plans in Ireland?

Ms Teehan also talked about the establishment of community development trusts and town and city development trusts. It must be remembered that we have city and county plans and that the courts have found that these represent a contract with the people. Citizens can have a legitimate expectation with regard to how we plan our cities under city and county development plans. I am interested in hearing about Ms Teehan's own experiences and those of the Heritage Council with regard to town and city development trusts.

I will move on to my final questions to the Heritage Council. I am quite excited by what I read about this Irish towns diaspora network. There are real opportunities there. It is something I have never really heard about before. It is about how we can tap into the diaspora. I know of a particular project in Kilcullen, County Kildare. Someone who had gone away to the United States and been very successful decided to financially support two or three restoration projects because of their link, connection and family. The person still has not come back to Ireland and does not intend to but was drawn back to a town they had lived in and felt they were in a privileged position to do something. I like this idea but I do not know enough about it.

I will touch on TU Dublin. I live out in Blackrock so I am particularly interested in its interpretation of the success of the works in Blackrock because it is a view I do not share.

They talk about change and bringing people with them. I picked up from the TUD presentation issues around the executive and decision-making, but we must have democratic accountability and oversight of projects. Citizens own their towns, villages and cities and want to be involved. I am a former county councillor for Blackrock, without getting too parochial about this, and I did not feel included. I shop there, walk there and go to the library there and I felt partially excluded. I say that despite many of the councillors being my colleagues. It depends who we are talking about. While businesses might say one thing, residents might say a different thing, so it is always a matter of hearing the different perspectives and views.

We talk about transport governance. Mention was made of an article in which it was said transport projects are ultimately political and require accountability and oversight. I agree with that. That is a very important part of our debate and our argument. How will we bring in people? Projects such as BusConnects have been referred to. We do not need a history lesson in BusConnects to know that people felt left out-----