Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On amendment No. 422, which covers public rights of way, I will consider that on foot of what we have said but I need to balance it and we will have to look at it because I do not believe rights of way should be legislated for, although I am not saying we are doing so within this Bill. I have to see what other consequences would be there, but I take the point.

I have said on amendment No. 417 that there is an opportunity with a new paragraph (h), which I am saying to the committee here that I am genuinely looking at, which will cover the areas of wildlife corridors, good ecological status, water and all of that piece.

I have already mentioned to Deputy Ó Broin that the monument piece has a lot of merit and we will see if that can be included.

On maps, in practice, and I have seen most of the development plans that come up, I am of the genuine belief here that (c), which reads “a map identifying” and then outlines right down to (ix) in those areas, in strong enough. For indicative cycle routes or permeability through one estate or another, particularly with the progress that has been made on the implementation of active travel plans and so forth, I know in any development plans I have seen that indicative routes are shown, and rightly so. They should be and they are indicative. We talked about public consultation as well and you see indicative routes shown, and sometimes where they are indicative and are aligning with people’s back gardens, people think they are in their back gardens and all those types of things, but they are indicative routes. Indicative is already covered appropriately in this section. The detail of the actual routes is a matter for a local area plan or a development plan and when it is put on display to implement those routes. I am pretty confident the provisions set out in (c), right down to (ix), are strong enough. It is fully up to Deputy Matthews if he wants to define it further. I see it in practice and it does happen in practice. Sometimes, the indicative routes, when they are shown, are the things which cause difficulties where people actually think they are the actual routes. Problems arise because people get concerned, and I am actually dealing with one of these very things in my own area where an indicative route has been shown.

People thought, incorrectly, that it meant the council was going to run a cycle route through their back gardens. That is the balance.