Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I thank the National Transport Authority, the Climate Change Advisory Council, the Irish Planning Institute, particularly Mr. Lawlor, who is full of things to say and full of wisdom, and the Office of the Planning Regulator. I want to stay focused on the submissions that the organisations sent to us because it is important to tease them out. I do not think anyone is in doubt about the commitment. The commonality of the issues that have been raised is very evident in the submissions that we have received and have had time to read. I thank the organisations for submitting them early as it gives us an advantage to look at them, tease them out, validate some of the issues around them and seek other opinions before we come in here. That is very helpful and I acknowledge that they have done that for us.

I will go to the Irish Planning Institute and Mr. Lawlor first. I want to tease out two or three things that were raised in his submission. Point 4 of the submission highlights that “The absence of mapping - including of potentially overlapping or competing policies, designations, objectives etc. - was identified as a weakness in the NPF”, which is the national planning framework. I would share that view but I would like Mr. Lawlor to tease it out a little further.

Before I give him that opportunity, I live at a port, Dún Laoghaire, and I am conscious that the NPF requires a strategy for delivering infrastructure at the ports and harbours, given the need to have the capability and capacity to develop services, maintain offshore renewable capacity and supply the economic activities that are essential in all of that. Again, the Irish Planning Institute raises that as an issue. It is an important point and I heard at a conference on renewables in Galway recently that this issue is continuously raised. Will Mr. Lawlor address those issues further and drill down into those concerns?