Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 108: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the progress to date in 2006 on the national spatial strategy; if he intends to review the national spatial strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5270/06]

Gay Mitchell (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 122: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the status of the national spatial strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5251/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 108 and 122 together.

At national level substantial progress is being made in implementing the national spatial strategy, which is having an increasing influence on policies and programmes across a range of Departments and agencies. At regional level, a key policy bridge between national development priorities and local planning has been put in place with the adoption of regional planning guidelines to provide a strategic framework for local planning. At county and city level, strategic land use and planning frameworks for a number of gateways are in place and work is well advanced on others.

The potential impact of the strategy in terms of achieving more balanced regional development has been underscored by the Government's decision in July 2005 that the regional dimension of the next national development plan, now in preparation, will be broadly based on the NSS. The priorities of the NSS and regional planning guidelines have also been recognised in the Government's ten-year investment plan for transport, Transport 21.

In leading the implementation of the NSS it is my intention to ensure it continues to inform the macro-investment agenda. To support the development of the NSS gateways, my Department in conjunction with Forfás, has commissioned a major report, now nearing completion, on their potential for accelerated development in housing, commercial and employment terms and the key infrastructure priorities that will be necessary to facilitate such development. Similar work is also being undertaken in relation to the hubs identified in the NSS. Work on a feasibility study to further develop the concept of an Atlantic gateways corridor, with enhanced linkages and networking between Cork, Galway, Limerick-Shannon and Waterford, is also nearing completion.

My Department, in co-operation with other relevant Departments, is also pursuing measures to enhance co-operation on spatial planning and infrastructural investment across the island of Ireland, as endorsed by the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. In conjunction with the Department of Regional Development in Northern Ireland, a framework is being developed for collaborative action between the NSS and the Regional Development Strategy for Northern Ireland, thus creating conditions that will facilitate enhanced competitiveness on the island as a whole.

I am satisfied the national spatial strategy provides a strategic planning framework which is of sufficient robustness and flexibility to cater for changing circumstances, including the most recent CSO national population estimates which suggest a population of up to 5 million by 2020. It is not proposed to review the strategy at this stage.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister's response. I am not being rude but I cannot hear the Minister clearly. It may be the way the sound is being transmitted. It is distorted on this side.

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Actually——

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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It might be my earphones. Perhaps the Minister should move to the Taoiseach's position.

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Modesty prevented me from doing that but I will do it now.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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I suggest we need somebody there at whom we can have a good laugh. I say that as a joke. I welcome the Minister's comments although I did not hear them all clearly. However, I note that he mentioned a report that he has commissioned and which will be ready shortly. I ask the Minister to put it in the public domain as soon as possible. I welcome his commitment on the North-South issue of spatial strategy. Recently, I attended an SDLP conference on North-South spatial strategy which was useful. The problem, and this is one the Minister would have in commuting to and from Dublin City, is that our roads on the east coast are continually clogged. No matter how early one rises in the morning one can still have to wait at least an hour or an hour and a half to get through the hub or the gateway into the city at the port tunnel. The east coast is being developed exclusively. It is no longer sustainable to live along the east coast. If people have to travel their commuting time takes longer and their contact times with families are short. I ask the Minister to accelerate his commitment to the regional hubs and particularly those hubs and growth centres in the west and the transport corridors thereto, because that is where we can share the wealth and the prosperity of our nation by bringing the jobs to those areas rather than locating them all in Dublin.

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I apologise for the sound problem. I could hear that there was a difficulty. With regard to the gateways generally, the Department is working with Forfás on a report which will look at the infrastructure needs. The Deputy is correct. The whole purpose of the national spatial strategy is to produce a much better balance on the island. There was a noise when I was making that point.

On the Atlantic corridor, which would be of particular interest to Deputy Ring, who put the question, the feasibility study is to consider the enhanced linkages and networks between Shannon and Limerick, Cork and Waterford cities. This study is nearing completion and it will be well worth debating when it is completed.

I agree with Deputy O'Dowd regarding his patch, the north east, and that of Deputy McGinley, the north west, in that one should consider the difficulties posed in those regions by the abomination that is the Border. I was in Clones yesterday and, as both Deputies will know, it has been hit extremely badly because of its location. North-South co-operation, or all-island co-operation, could be very beneficial and could result in a win-win situation. I agree with the Deputy that this is an important area.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Does the Minister agree that the key issue regarding the national spatial strategy concerns the availability of zoned land and the market in terms of where people want to purchase houses? Has the Minister produced any figures relating to the capacity of land on the east coast that has been rezoned but not yet built upon?

The Minister stated the national spatial strategy was being used as a means of evaluating the need for infrastructural projects. It was presented as a means of delivering in respect of leisure, education and various infrastructural projects, for example, by way of drawing development from the east coast to other areas. To what extent is the strategy being used in this regard? It seems there is a considerable amount of catch-up in areas subject to a high level of development. It is very difficult to see how the resources can be spent in the two places at the same time.

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy, like me, represents a constituency very much affected by the spill-over from Dublin. Let me give a couple of examples of how the national spatial strategy links directly into that. The five-year capital investment envelopes which have been agreed reflect the strategy. It is particularly important to find out the infrastructural needs regarding the western corridor. The high density rail-based corridor in Cork is directly related to the strategy and is providing additional public transport to 20,000 homes.

The national spatial strategy has significance even within the Dublin area. On the creation of a more compact Dublin, the idea behind the plans for Dublin city, Fingal, south Dublin and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown is to promote substantial housing output in those areas. However, one encounters problems other than those I have mentioned and Deputy Gilmore will be able to speak at length on the problems associated with increased density in his constituency. Getting the balance right is a challenge but the national spatial strategy is a good template against which to do so.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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I understood the national spatial strategy would have to be driven and I recollect that the Minister's Department was to be the lead engine in driving it. Will he tell us how this is done? I do not see anybody in charge of the strategy. I hear it mentioned from time to time but cannot recall a single decision made by a planning authority or the Government that would not have been made in any case. No planning decision that I can recall turned on the existence of the national spatial strategy.

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I disagree with the Deputy. There have been many cases in which the strategy——

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Decentralisation——

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The first planning decision I made last year concerned the scale of retail units. We made a specific——

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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That concentrated development in Dublin.

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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No.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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The national spatial strategy was to spread development to the regions.

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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A specific relationship was established between that and the hubs and gateways. There was a specific cross-reference——

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Are we to have an IKEA at every gateway?

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Yes, one can have that type of development——

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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They are moving back into the city centres in the United Kingdom.

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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——in each of those areas.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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They are getting smaller.

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I am sure the Deputy, like me, welcomes the prosperity that will come to Ballymun.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Rezoning.

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Each of the major investment decisions refers back to the national spatial strategy. Under Transport 21, many of the detailed planning issues are related specifically to the strategy.