Mr. D?nal McCormack:

As to the recommendations for national growing we would have if a Minister was here, we have detailed them in the report. There is a strong need for legislative changes. That was one of the main things we wanted to communicate. There should be a waiting list in each local authority. It would make sense for it to be purely at a local authority level or even, perhaps, at a municipal district level. Being from Blessington, I am in the Baltinglass Municipal District. It is 72 km from the top to the bottom so if I was offered an allotment in Carnew or Baltinglass, there would not be the carbon benefit we mentioned. It needs to be kept local. We would look for a plan to be put in place for each urban area. It may not be a case of the local authority providing land; we have proposed it provides or facilitates the use of land. There are a number of State bodies with access to land.

What we feel would make it better for communities is if they went through a single party, which would be the local authority, and it can be the conduit for those requests to go through. Again, we are just talking about simplifying the process.

In terms of other actions, we think it is important for guidance documents to be issued to landowners to make them more familiar with what allotments are and what the legal status is, and also to make them more assured that they will be able to access the land in the future. We have called out examples in Scotland and Wales that relate to compulsory purchase orders but also to compulsory hiring orders, something we do not have in place in Ireland. That would be in regard to hiring for a certain amount of time, after which the landowner would be able to retain ownership. Again, that is something for the committee to review.

We said that having a waiting list is very important, but also having a set target. We suggested doubling the number of allotments and community gardens by 2025. If we do not have a target, it is a bit aimless and there is no plan in place. We think having something like that would be essential.

With regard to Cork City Council, while the Deputy is talking about other jurisdictions, it included as part of its city development plan references to its apartment standards, where it is including a recommendation for allotments, roof gardens and son on. We have not seen that in other local development plans and that was the main area where we have seen it. The council stated that rooftop spaces should be put to productive use for either green roofs, blue roofs, solar energy, communal rooftop gardens, communal multi-use games areas, MUGAs, or communal allotments. I have not seen anything specifically calling out a design standard but that is the closest to it.