Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 36: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the steps his Department is taking to ensure that local authorities, in drawing up their next county development plans, will specifically climate-proof those county development plans and, for example, allow no building on flood plains; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28711/07]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Development plans, prepared by local authorities under Part II of the Planning and Development Act 2000, provide the over-arching strategic framework for development within their areas, ensuring that all development is sustainable from an economic, social and environmental point of view. As such, the development plan must offer clear guidance on sustainable development policies and objectives, both national and local, which address the full range of sustainability issues such as climate change, waste management, transport, urban development, sustainable communities and the use of natural resources.

In June 2007, my Department published Development Plans: Guidelines for Planning Authorities. The guidelines state that it is imperative that the objectives and strategies set out in development plans are compatible with the Government's commitment to reducing energy consumption and modifying the impacts of climate change. Development plans should be consistent with the objectives of national initiatives that will address energy and climate change issues, such as the National Climate Change Strategy 2007-2012, which builds on the commitment to sustainable development set out in Towards 2016 and the National Development Plan 2007-2013. Moreover, the conclusions in the EPA state of the environment report and other evidence on environmental quality and trends should inform the drafting of development plans and be reflected as appropriate in their objectives and implementation.

The guidelines state that flood risk should be considered at relevant stages of the planning and development process and the aim should be to ensure that existing flood risks are either reduced or addressed and that new development does not individually or cumulatively give rise to new flood risks. My Department, in conjunction with the Office of Public Works, is preparing more comprehensive guidance on flooding and the planning system with a view to its issue for public consultation and finalisation next year.

The strategic environmental assessment carried out as part of the preparation and review of the development plan can help to bring environmental issues into sharper focus during the consultation process, and should improve the overall sustainability of the plan-making process by facilitating the identification and appraisal of alternative plan strategies, by raising awareness of the environmental impacts of plans, and by encouraging the inclusion of measurable targets and indicators.

Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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I thank the Minister. The Environmental Protection Agency has called for county development plans to be climate proofed. The Minister has stated what is in place at present in terms of guidelines, that to which one must have regard, what local authorities should promote, etc. The problem with all of that is it is just too vague. There are no requirements on local authorities to ensure that climate proofing is taken into account in drawing up and voting on county development plans.

That problem was very much identified by the chairman of An Bord Pleanála at the end of last week when he spoke about——

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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A question please.

Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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I am informing the Minister that the chairman of An Bord Pleanála identified a problem. He stated that if councillors rezoned land on flood plains, for example, An Bord Pleanála might have to override those rezonings on the grounds that it would be on flood plains and that there may be issues of compensation to the land developers. That is not good enough. There should be a mandatory requirement on councillors and county development plans not to rezone on flood plains. These issues are particularly related to climate change. There will be much more rainfall in the future. There will be more extreme weather events. For example, a few years ago Lucan experienced its worst flooding in 100 years. That type of flooding might happen every 50 years or 20 years in the future. The Department has quoted studies which state that there will be a 2% increase in temperature——

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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A question please.

Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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——which will happen irrespective of what we do about reducing our emissions and such like. Therefore, there will be a real problem.

If the development plans drawn up in two years time include irresponsible rezonings such as those in the past which promote urban sprawl, all the Minister's carbon targets will be cosmetic if he will allow local authorities to continue to rezone without regard to the flooding and climate change consequences. What will the Minister do about it?

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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I must agree with the bulk of what Deputy Tuffy stated. Of course we require responsible planning. I listened carefully to what the chairman of An Bord Pleanála stated. He was simply echoing what I have stated. The planners in local authorities are getting clear directions, namely, that at this stage it makes no sense to build on flood plains.

As Deputy Tuffy will probably be aware, as Minister I can intervene — I do so reluctantly — when what I might call "mis-zoning" takes place, and there have been examples of that.

It is clear that the planners at local level would be remiss if they recommended building on a flood plain. At this stage I do not think that anyone would do that.

Where the difficulty arises is that there may be irresponsible councillors who decide, for whatever reason, to proceed in this fashion and build on a flood plain. All of the evidence, from the EPA and others, suggests this is foolhardy. Indeed, Deputy Tuffy pointed out that in some cases in parts of the country there has been a 20% increase in precipitation and the risk of flooding has increased. Furthermore, as we build more, one finds that the hard surfaces mean there is less drainage and there is an increased danger of flooding. For all of these reasons in my meetings with local authority members we have stated that this is not the way to go.

Of course I can issue directives and I will be issuing planning directives. In fact, before Christmas I will issue new density guidelines which will take account of flooding risk.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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We move on to Question No. 37 in the name of Deputy Ciarán Lynch.

Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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I had indicated.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I am afraid we are one minute over the time.

Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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I had indicated already.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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We are one minute over the time. There are six minutes allocated for each priority question and we have used seven. The way we are going, that means we will not get to the last one.