Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for considering the amendment. Over the past year and a half, there has been extensive engagement between us in the Green Party and the Department in relation to this Bill. I thank the Department for including many of our amendments, coming back to us on occasions like to say it has considered what we said and giving us something that might move towards being acceptable to us.

The Minister of State referred to Schedule 1. There is a definition of transport in Schedule 1 but it refers to three things. One is intermodal transshipment facilities exceeding 5 ha. Another is long-distance railway and tramways, etc., and the third is harbours and ports. This gives rise to the difficulty for us. Nowhere in the Bill does it refer to transport as anything other than this. Nor is there any other definition. Part 3 is an important part of the Bill. As the Minister of State knows, it lays out the strategic elements of the national planning framework, new national planning statements and development plans, etc. There are 25 definitions at the start but no definition of transport infrastructure. Yet, in this Part, which is over 100 pages long, transport is consistently referred to. It would be helpful to have a definition that includes something other than these large transport infrastructure projects. We want to see transport, including cycling, pedestrians, public transport and road traffic, included. Last week, I attended a meeting of the housing committee with my colleague, Deputy Leddin, for three hours. We had a discussion about the national planning framework. The Minister of State can refer back to my comments but I am concerned that we are putting into the national planning framework the same things we did last time, with an emphasis on roads. They are important, but let us have balance and set it out in these 700 pages so we are quite clear there is that balance in how we move forward.