Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----but today we are where we are and we are happy where we are.

Deputy Casey is correct. I find a great deal sympathy with what he said because I am a native of Wicklow. My mother, many of my relations and I still live there. I will address this in a different manner in the future. I will look at it as a native who is very familiar with the problems the Deputy is discussing because of my associations there.

The critical eye with which I have looked upon the agencies to which the Deputy is referring remains but I am certainly not going to say anything rash or foolish in these early days in office. I am simply reading myself in with regard to the NTA and other agencies and what they do and say. I will be meeting representatives from those agencies in the next ten days.

One of the key functions of the NTA, under section 11 of the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008, is to "undertake strategic planning of transport". In carrying out this function, the Transport Strategy for the Greater Dublin Area 2016-2035 was prepared by the NTA in accordance with the relevant legislative provisions, primarily section 12 of the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008. The NTA consulted widely in preparing the transport strategy. As well as consulting all local authorities during the preparation of the strategy, the process also included two public consultation phases, one at the commencement of the preparatory work and a second in respect of the details of the draft strategy.

The purpose of the strategy is to provide a framework for the planning and delivery of transport infrastructure and services in the greater Dublin area over the next two decades. The greater Dublin area covers the four Dublin administrative areas as well as Kildare, Meath and Wicklow. In preparing the strategy the NTA is required to have regard to a number of matters. These include: the national spatial strategy; demographic and transport trends across the greater Dublin area; the national plan for capital investment, Building on Recovery: Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2016-2021; local authorities' development plans; and the regional planning guidelines for the region prior to their replacement with a regional spatial and economic strategy.

Of particular significance are the regional planning guidelines for the region. It is a specific requirement of the legislation that the NTA ensures that the transport strategy is consistent with the regional planning guidelines and subsequently with their replacement - the regional spatial and economic strategy. The NTA does not have statutory responsibility for land use planning in the region. The is the role of the local authorities, the regional assemblies and the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government at a national policy level. This is fully recognised and stated in the transport strategy, which also states that the "role of the Strategy is to establish the framework for transport provision necessary to achieve the land use vision set out in the Regional Planning Guidelines".

As required under the legislation, the NTA liaised with the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly during the preparation of the transport strategy. Following consideration of the draft transport strategy by the regional assembly, it provided confirmation that the draft transport strategy was considered with the regional planning guidelines for the greater Dublin area.

Many of the existing planning and transport problems across the greater Dublin area, which have resulted in unsustainable patterns of commuting and increasing congestion, stem from a lack of integration between planning and land use. It is important that a much more integrated approach is developed between these two areas, both now and into the future. Existing legislation seeks to achieve this by requiring, on a statutory basis, consistency between strategic transport planning, in the form of the transport strategy, and regional level land use planning, currently in the form of the regional planning guidelines which will be replaced by a regional spatial and economic strategy.

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