Dan Boyle (Green Party)

It is an essential principle of green politics that the Green Party should seek to be in Government in so far as possible to give power away. I am glad that the Minister, Deputy Gormley, has decided to live up to that principle. I did not expect him to do it so soon or to distribute the power in this precise way. The function of the Bill before us is to do precisely that.

There is no doubt the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has many functions that require specific attention. One of those functions until the passage of this Bill has been responsibility for non-national roads. There is a logic that the Department of Transport should be involved in all aspects of transport planning and responsibility for the transport infrastructure. On those grounds, this is a necessary Bill that is technical in nature.

This debate allows us to ask questions about the nature of planning in general, the roles of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the Department of Transport. It is unfortunate that some Members have tried to personalise the nature of this Bill because it provides for the transfer of the functions to an office and a Department rather than an individual. This legislation will live beyond the lifespan of this Government and current holders of any offices of Government. On those grounds, Members should be more open to the detail of the Bill.

The technicalities involved are aptly described in the first three sections. Despite the tenor of the previous contributions it seems clear that the House will not divide on the issues involved. Following the transfer of these functions, there is a need to seek the introduction of wider legislation on this area. I will explain some of those areas that could be dealt with under future legislation. In terms of implementing the national spatial strategy and having an integrated approach, we still have separate road, traffic and transport authorities. If we believe in integrated planning, we must ensure authorities are in place that will allow that to happen in a more organised way. The roads authority is either a local council or the National Roads Authority, the traffic authority is the Garda Síochána and the transport authorities, in so far as they exist, are Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann.

The promised forthcoming legislation dealing with the Dublin Transportation Office might present an opportunity to put a new model in place. My party not only wants that legislation to come into being, we want such principles applied to transport planning and planning in general throughout the country. I hope the Minister will use his influence to help shape such promised legislation and to put it on the legislative programme.

Now that functions are being transferred to the Department of Transport under this Bill, another area that needs to be covered is that of local competence and decision-making on issues related to non-national roads. I am mindful of roads in built-up and urban areas. While there has been a diminution in recent years of the need for local authorities to transfer to the Department the decisions to be made, that practice still exists to too large an extent. A more comprehensive Bill would eradicate those anomalies and transfer the necessary powers, regardless of which is the overriding Department, to the local authorities and to the elected members of a local authority. As this is a technical Bill in nature and the changes provided in it must be made as soon as possible, it could not deal with what I propose. However, we need legislation of that type as soon as possible.

I wish to praise the success of thewww.motortax.ie service and the take-up of it. I hope the transfer of functions and powers from one Department to the other under this legislation will happen as smoothly as possible and that no technical problems will result from it. It would be in order for the link to www.motortax.ie to remain on the website of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government as well as on the website of the Department of Transport to allow people, regardless of how they access the service if they do not do so directly, to have as many avenues open as possible to pay motor taxation on-line.

Regarding the payment of motor tax and the local government fund, it is especially welcome that the Bill does not transfer responsibility for the collection of motor tax receipts, the placing of those funds in the local government fund and their eventual distribution to local authorities from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government because this is an important function. The Department has shown itself to be very adept at this since 1999. If responsibility for it does not remain where it is, an avenue of funding for local authorities and the services provided by them would be disrupted as a result.

On those grounds, I am glad the House will not divide on this Bill. I welcome the transfer of powers in so far as they go and I look forward to the introduction of legislation that will deal with more detailed areas that need to be examined in terms of the anomalies that still exist which prevent us from having a smooth, integrated and co-ordinated system of planning, including transport planning.