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

I am glad to be here. Our officials were here yesterday for a good productive session. I hope I can add to that and look forward to our wider discussion on the National Investment Framework for Transport in Ireland, or NIFTI as it is commonly called. It is the Department's new framework for supporting the consideration and prioritisation of future investment in the national land transport network. It is our response to the national planning framework and the projections for population growth and settlement patterns we will have to 2040. It is key to underpinning the strategic outcomes of the national planning framework. It is critical so that investment in the transport sector is underpinned by and supports the delivery of the national strategic objectives in that framework.

NIFTI sets out the transport sector’s strategic priorities to deliver on that 2040 vision. It does not identify specific projects for investment, determine the total amount of transport funding available or decide upon the allocation of funding to different areas. Its role is to act as a common lens through which to consider potential investment at an individual project level.

Decisions on investment in transport continue primarily to be shaped by programme for Government priorities, including a commitment to invest 2:1 in favour of public transport compared to road projects and to invest €360 million each year in active travel. It is not just the national planning framework we have to adhere to, but also critical project plans such as the climate action plan, Our Rural Future, the metropolitan area transport strategies and the soon to be agreed, subject to Government approval, sustainable mobility policy. There is a variety of policy objectives that NIFTI sits within.

NIFTI sets out four priorities of the national strategic outcomes. They are decarbonisation, protection and renewal of existing assets, promotion of sustainable mobility of people and goods in urban areas and enhancement of regional and rural accessibility. They are the key objectives of transport investment. One is not prioritised over the other. They may combine and be met in different ways.

Beneath that there are hierarchies. To deliver the most appropriate solution, the investment priorities are set out in modal and intervention hierarchies. Modal refers to promoting active travel first and promoting public transport before private transport because that meets a variety of other policy goals I mentioned earlier. Similarly, when it comes to investment in the intervention hierarchy, it is far better to repair, manage, use or upgrade an existing asset before we look to build new. That is a better use of space and resources and provides a better emissions profile when we have that investment hierarchy as well as the modal hierarchy.

As I am sure members would agree, getting assessment of all the complex arrangements we have around approval of public capital projects, in particular, is complicated. We have in the last decade put in place new structures in government to guide investment projects, particularly large capital projects, in the public spending code, which has to be adhered to. In our Department, transport-specific guidance has been put in place in the common appraisal framework, CAF. That will be updated later this year. It is also being reviewed on an ongoing basis, for example, as we learn more about the real cost of carbon dioxide and the need to price and cost that properly and to look at the broader planning and other gains we need to get from our investment decisions.

The existing requirements cover consideration of a range of factors, including strategic alignment with sectoral and Government policy, economic and financial appraisal, as well as feasibility and deliverability. It is noted that existing requirements under the public spending code, which was updated in 2019, include the need to set out and demonstrate the strategic and policy alignment of any proposal being submitted, such as alignment with the national planning framework. Both the public spending code and the 2016 common appraisal framework transport appraisal guidance already include requirements to develop and consider a range of possible options and a variety of types of interventions, for example, different modes or network management as opposed to investment options.

The National Investment Framework for Transport in Ireland has been developed to better serve and support our agencies and local authorities to demonstrate strategic alignment with the national planning framework through the NIFTI transport priorities. They will assist in the process of picking the right options by re-emphasising the need for a variety of options to be developed, and for this to be done with reference to sustainability and value for money. An interim update of the guidance to account for NIFTI at the project level will be published shortly and in advance of a revised and updated common appraisal framework, which will be published later this year. That is the broad outline. I look forward to the variety of questions members may have and to our engagement.