Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to speak on the national planning framework. It is the most important body of work before this Oireachtas. We must get it right and learn lessons from the past. We must be bold, think big and be brave.

I have been very supportive of the process and of the broad outline of what the planning framework is trying to do. I see three elements from reading the documents and being engaged in the consultation process to date. One is that we must do everything to decarbonise our economy. That is how the future economy will be so we must do it. We also have obligations under the Paris Agreement. Our island must start being green. If we are marketing ourselves in that way we must do it in reality.

Second, we must stop the sprawl. We must start bringing development back close to the centres of villages, towns and cities for a variety of reasons. The cost of servicing our health, education and transport needs in the same way as we have done in the last 30 years will not be viable. It will be incredibly expensive. It does not provide strong social cohesion and simply will not work.

Third, there is the opportunity to reinvigorate Irish politics at local and regional levels. This should be done not from the top down but by engaging communities, regions and cities and allowing them to come up with ideas on how to implement the aspirations for decarbonising the system and intensifying development so we can reduce our carbon footprint and improve our society.

I do not see the Government doing anything that is aligned with the three objectives which I consider to be central to the plan. That is my key criticism. I will outline in simple detail in all three areas where we are not delivering in Government policy what we say we wish to deliver in the framework. First, with regard to climate, we must have a land use plan if we are going to reduce emissions. Many of the reductions will come from natural solutions, which will help us to develop biodiversity and improve our landscape. There is a range of different gains. However, there is no detail in that regard.

Farmers will be the front line and there is an opportunity with the forthcoming revision of the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, to stitch in what we say we want in the framework in terms of paying farmers for storing carbon, helping with water management and delivering on wildlife. The way that is done in the Burren is an example, but we must go further. There was nothing in the recent budget about forestry. How can we state in the national planning framework that we wish to reduce emissions yet say nothing in the budget about how to develop forestry? Similarly, in our food system we cannot promote Origin Green if we are not green behind it. We had an interesting meeting with Bord Bia recently. We are keen for it to answer the question of what it really means to be Origin Green. I believe it starts with healthy food that consumers want, supporting local farmers, getting young people back on the land and making food a key employment creator again. Our current system does not encourage or support that.

We must also examine the development and integration of our national parks and start thinking in a different way in that regard. If we were serious about this the funding for the National Parks and Wildlife Service would have been doubled in the budget. It was not. We spend more on greyhound racing than on the National Parks and Wildlife Service. That must change.

We are not doing anything on climate change mitigation actions. We have no offshore wind plan. We will probably have to hold back on onshore wind generation because we have lost public confidence to a certain extent but that should not stop us pushing a solar revolution, where nothing is happening. It should not stop us developing our offshore wind resources where there are huge possibilities and capabilities. It should not stop us developing biomass, not to burn it in a power station which is the least sustainable option but to examine the clever use of biomass at local level. Again, that ties farmers into this new economy.

Where is the plan to promote electric vehicles as part of this framework? Where are the plans to ramp up the use of heat pumps rather than burning oil and gas in our homes? Where is the plan to double and treble the amount of money we are spending on retrofitting insulation? There is none of that in the current plans.

The same applies to transport. We do not have a single rail based public transport project ready to go. This draft document is all about roads. The recent budget was all about more roads. How can one talk about concentrating development when one does not promote public transport, cycling and walking? Where are the plans for the 19th century market towns that are not thriving at present? Where is the experiment to retrofit certain towns completely and see how it works to get people back living on the main street and get shopping back to the local level rather than in big out-of-town centres? There is no detail or Government plan behind that objective.

Finally, where is the political change? Where is there a different regional approach? The three regions are not appropriate. Dublin needs a directly elected mayor if we are going to make Dublin work as a medieval city with development coming back close to the core. A mayor is required because it cannot be done through a regional assembly. Where is the south-east region? Waterford could be the capital of the south east. That would lift all of the region. Where are the district councils and the ability to match what has happened in Clonakilty, which has a local mayor? That town is booming because power is being given back to the local area.

The framework wishes to set up a smart growth fund. I support that, but we should have started in this budget by giving towns and regions the opportunity to bid for this new future. Some systems will work and some will not. We will replicate those which work and transform the country. There is no ambition in the Government to back up this plan and there was nothing in the recent budget to back it up. We do not even have the draft capital plan while we are discussing the planning framework. If we were serious about this we would see that level of engagement on the part of the Government.

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