Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The DMURS is a good document and our plans generally adhere to it. However, if we look at some of the consents given for housing estates, there is talk about permeability but those estates do not necessarily provide optimum permeability. I have an amendment on this issue. Permeability to allow people to get to a sports field or shops might be included but not necessarily to get to transport. Unless we make it easier for people to get to transport, to cycle or walk around their towns, we are not going to win the battle to provide people with good alternatives to their car use. We see it in every town and village. When the schools return, there are traffic jams everywhere because people are driving their children to school since there is not that permeability. It is hard to retrofit afterwards. If we try to knock a hole through one housing estate into another, for all the benefits it may bring, we will find that most people do not want that to happen. We have all had those battles at local level. I would like the Minister of State to consider how we can bring in a definition of that hierarchy of road users model that would be acceptable to the Department. It is something for us to aim for in the hierarchy of plans we produce, from national to local level, and also for TOD. I am open to my suggested descriptions of those two things being amended so they sit well with planning policy. The definition of TOD I included is a mixture of two definitions, one of which is from a Government publication and the other is an international description.

Amendment No. 144 seeks to delete "promotion of sustainable settlement patterns". I find the word "promotion" incredibly weak in terms of planning. "Promotion" could mean putting up nice photographs at the open days and public consultations. How exactly can we promote sustainable settlement patterns and transport strategies in the NPF? For a start, how do we define what a "sustainable transport strategy" is? What research and documentation do we have to say a transport strategy is sustainable?

What is a sustainable transport strategy? If we are to include a reference to one in legislation, I want to know where it is coming from.