Results 6,681-6,700 of 9,814 for speaker:Steven Matthews

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: Definitely. I have a final point. The witnesses have said there are 100 community gardens and allotments in the country. What helps to get political momentum going is lobbying and contacting councillors, especially around development plans, as well as Deputies and Senators. When public opinion pushes in a direction, politics tends to follow. I have no doubt the group would get good...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: There are probably many people operating out there who are afraid to stick up their head in case somebody wonders about a community garden that nobody knew about. I will go briefly through some points. I can put together something. Deputy Ó Broin is right that we can work on this as a committee. We are looking at the planning code and process and there is an ongoing assessment of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: Sure. Perhaps the committee can help with that. I do not know what role we would have. The consultation was about what should be contained in county development plans. Local authorities should have waiting lists.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: A section in policy, whether it is a county development plan or another policy, should be for community gardens and allotments.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: Below that we would have communities, so community growing.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: In regard to a timeline, Mr. McCormack recommends five years.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: It might be better to do it in six years because that is the timeline for the local area plans and county development plans. That is something to consider. Reference was made to having skills within the local authorities. That would be nice. It may not be necessary, but it would probably be very beneficial. On the definition of "community garden", should that come from the witnesses...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: There was mention of permanent gardens and temporary gardens. Is that something that needs to be included in the definition as well?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: Could I leave it to the witnesses to come back to us on the definition of communal growing space and permanent and temporary gardens?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: I do not think it is any harm to note the issues.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: We have talked about the Local Government Act 2001 as being the place where, possibly, that legislative change needs to happen. A point was also made in regard to legislation on operation versus legislation to provide the space. We will have to be clear on that. We also talked about the design per population and what might be required in that regard, that this be provided for in county...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: Will Mr. McCormack elaborate on that point with regard to the 65-year gap?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: I understand. I will draft the letter and bring it forward at our private meeting either next week or the week after that. In the meantime, the witnesses are free to contact us on anything that occurs to them that they did not get to talk about today or was not raised with them.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Urban Area Speed Limits and Road Safety Strategy: Discussion (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: I apologise for being late. I was chairing another meeting. I thank the Chair and committee members for agreeing to hold this meeting. This is an important issue that affects every city, town and village in Ireland. We all want to have safer roads for everybody, including car users. When car users step out of their cars, they become pedestrians, perhaps holding a child's hand. This is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Urban Area Speed Limits and Road Safety Strategy: Discussion (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: That was very apparent to me in 2013 when studying the document at local authority level. I was trying to apply 30 km/h speed limits to residential roads, not just cul-de-sac estates. Mr. Rowland said the document is being reviewed. When can we expect local authorities to have a document in front of them that states certain roads with certain characteristics qualify and should fall within...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Urban Area Speed Limits and Road Safety Strategy: Discussion (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: Enforcement is a critical aspect also. Putting up a 30 km/h sign on a road will probably do very little to address speeding if the road is designed such that drivers take the view that they can go fast on it. Road design, build-outs and the engineering of roads are also critical. A lot of this comes down to local authorities. They are the bodies that can act in this area. We can only set...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Urban Area Speed Limits and Road Safety Strategy: Discussion (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: I agree with Mr. Waide. We can have the best guidance documents in the world but we also require implementation at local authority level whereby local authorities ascertain how roads can be altered and the designs required to signal to drivers that certain roads are ones on which they should be going slowly. Many of the interventions do not have to involve major civil engineering works....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Urban Area Speed Limits and Road Safety Strategy: Discussion (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: I have a question for the delegates from Love 30, who might also address my previous question. A really good graphic that I am sure we have all seen shows that if one is struck by a vehicle at 60 km/h, it results in a fatality in nine out of ten cases. At 50 km/h, there may be a fatality in six out of ten cases. I cannot remember the figure. At 30 km/h, nine out of ten people will...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Urban Area Speed Limits and Road Safety Strategy: Discussion (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: The Chairman has made an important point. If a working group for implementation involves the Department and all the agencies, it should also have representation from groups such as Love 30. Does this come under the auspices of the Department of Transport?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Urban Area Speed Limits and Road Safety Strategy: Discussion (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: If the terms of reference are not drawn up, the committee should write to the Minister and ask him to consider if a group such as Love 30 should be part of that. I am not just saying Love 30 because its representatives are here.