Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 4:

In page 6, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following:“ ‘Strategic Transport Plan’ is a transport plan drafted by a transport authority;

‘transport authority’ means either the National Transport Authority or Transport Infrastructure Ireland as defined in the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008 and the Public Transport Regulation Act 2009 as amended.”.

The amendments in the grouping all relate to transport and transport strategy. We have to go back to the rationale of the Mahon tribunal report and its recommendation to establish a planning regulator to achieve a greater level of integration between land use planning, such as local authority zoning decisions, and strategic transport planning. It is disappointing that the new office of the planning regulator is not being given any role in the oversight of the development or implementation of plans by the NTA or the TII. I am aware that the TII and the NTA are statutorily bound to have regard to higher level master plans such as the national planning framework, what was the national spatial plan, or regional planning guidelines.

Very often, however, there is a lack of coherence or even disagreement, whether perceived or real, between local authorities' development plans and regional transport strategies developed by the NTA and TII.

This time last year, the new transport strategy for the greater Dublin area was launched. It gave a specific example of how local authorities and representatives in my county of Wicklow, along with those in Kildare and Meath, voiced concerns the NTA was setting rules on spatial planning without due consideration to the regional and county plans . It seems from the Government's proposal that the role of the office of the planning regulator, OPR, will be to ensure there is coherence and agreement between county development plans, local area plans and regional transport plans developed by the NTA and TII. However, it should also be recognised that bodies such as the NTA or TII, despite having statutory obligations to comply with the national spatial strategy or the regional planning guidelines, may not always make decisions that are consistent with regional planning guidelines. In addition, there should not be an assumption that it is local authority plans that are inconsistent with regional plans or national plans.

Our proposal is to give the new office of the planning regulator the role of arbitrator between local authorities and bodies such as the NTA or TII when disagreements arise over draft plans. If a local authority is of the belief that specific decisions by the NTA or TII run contrary to its development plan, such complaints could be given an airing by the OPR and not simply just cast aside.

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