Mr. Brendan Allen:

I thank the Chair and committee members for offering us the opportunity to talk to them about autism and planning, buildings and public space. My name is Brendan Allen. I am a fellow of the institute and also one of its past presidents. I am accompanied by Ms Flanagan, who convenes our practice committee, and Dr. O’Leary, a senior planner with the institute.

The IPI was founded in 1975. We are the all-island professional body representing professional planners engaged in physical and environmental planning in Ireland.

The institute’s mission is to advance planning by serving, improving and promoting the planning profession for the benefit of the community and the common good. We represent more than 1,000 planners on the island of Ireland across the public and private sectors. Our members work in local authorities, An Bord Pleanála, central government, regional assemblies, academia, private practice, semi-State bodies, large developers, etc. The institute is also affiliated to the umbrella body, the European Council of Spatial Planners, has international links with the Planning Institute of Australia and the New Zealand Planning Institute, and is a member of the Global Planners Network. I will preface my contribution by saying that I just happen to be a planner who happens to have an autistic child, so I have a personal interest in some of these issues and notice these things from a planning perspective as well as a human one just by virtue of that.

Proper planning and sustainable development is the cornerstone of the Irish planning system. Pursuing sustainable development involves seeking positive improvements in the quality of the built, natural and historic environment, as well as in people’s quality of life. A key concern for planning and for people generally is placemaking, taking a multifaceted approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces. Placemaking seeks to achieve connections between people and the public places, their use and how they use it. We believe we can work with the various people involved in design to ensure autism-friendly spaces through this placemaking lens, on which planners play a unique role.

There is a key role for planners, architects, engineers and accessibility consultants in ensuring universal design at the project stage, but there also may be a role for incorporating neurodiversity at the strategic, plan-making, level. However, to facilitate consistency in decision-making, such policies should be evidence based and consistent to avoid a situation where some planning authorities may differ significantly in their requirements, leading to mixed outcomes. We have experienced that type of thing in the past. We want all local authorities to be operating from the same design guidance hymn sheet.

Currently, new planning legislation to replace the Planning and Development Act 2000 is being progressed through the Oireachtas. As we have made clear in our evidence to the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage as part of its pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill and reflected in its report, better planning outcomes will require ensuring greater public participation in plan-making and empowering local people to shape their surroundings. We note that the principle of social cohesion underpins this new legislation, which should facilitate a greater awareness of the need for design to work for people with different sets of spatial needs.

We note that the forthcoming publication of draft sustainable and compact settlements guidelines for planning authorities for public consultation will see a focus on quality design and placemaking, and this committee may also wish to integrate its views into that consultation. There may also be a role for evidence based, autism-specific design guidelines to raise awareness among planners, architects, engineers and landscape architects of the need to deliver safe and accessible spaces for everyone, and indeed there may be scope for statutory ministerial guidelines following the passage of the new planning legislation.

Recently we held a continuing professional development, CPD, webinar on universal design and inclusive public spaces which was attended by more than 60 members. We heard that public spaces do not meet the current requirements for neurodiverse people. One of the speakers was a colleague of Mr. Harris from AsIAm. We heard how we need to look at how we can improve the experience of these spaces for autistic people, the need to raise awareness about urban design opportunities to reduce anxiety and less intense sensory experiences, create greater accessibility and reduce sensory load and the value of initiatives such as Dublin City University’s autism-friendly university design guide. The institute is happy to continue working to ensure we build the capacity of our members in this regard. However, it must also be acknowledged that there are very real resource constraints in the planning system at present and the overall quantum of planners in the public and private sectors must increase to deliver current roles and responsibilities. Only this will allow our members and other built environment professionals specialise further in urban design and neurodiversity issues. Creating obligations without adequate resources will risk raising expectations without necessarily improving outcomes.

The IPI’s education guidelines, which we use to accredit planning programmes in third-level institutions, require students to learn about access and additional needs, urban design, and about planning and health, social justice and diversity. It may be appropriate for future guidelines to place an additional focus on planning for neurodiversity.

We are happy to address any questions the committee members may have. Should the committee wish to engage further with the Irish Planning Institute on any aspect of today’s discussion, we would be happy to assist in any way possible.