Mr. Gavin Lawlor:

I agree but I think Chairman is mixing up the likes of guidelines and best practice. A poorly designed estate is a poorly designed estate. This should not happen but it does. Much of the development now is legacy; it is not the latest-latest. For example, the development plan for Dublin city centre has no car parking in residential schemes. That is for a good reason because everywhere is walkable and there is fantastic public transport available in Dublin city centre. The same cannot be said of other regional centres, such as Limerick and Cork. They do not have public transport available at the same level.

With regard to the use and frequency of public transport, it is funny that the Chairman said developments are advertised as being close to the M50. They are, but others are advertised as having their own car-sharing facilities, the Luas on the doorstep or a ten-minute walk to bus stops. These are becoming more important to people. People understand they can get places quicker on public transport than in a car.

To return to the court case, it is important to speak to the traffic engineers. They will state that, from a public transport perspective, frequency and capacity are set by the bus operator. When a bus fills up, it is in the operator's interest to make a second bus available. Just because a bus is full does not mean that if more houses are developed in the area, there will be no more capacity and residents will not have a bus to get. In fact, another bus is added in such cases, or another route is added. The integration of public transportation and zoning happened a long time ago in Dublin. I am referring to the Dublin Transportation Office and all the public transportation plans. Time has moved on a lot.

Permeability, surface car parking, home zones and so on are all in the guidance already. There is extensive guidance on the best examples of how to do things right and what works and does not. The issue is that there are many legacy schemes that came about before the guidance. Planning authorities should be seeking to retrofit better solutions in those spaces, where possible.