Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the House to discuss this important issue. I am concerned about the level of traffic control in new and existing housing estates around the country. My greatest concern is, obviously, for the housing estates throughout County Clare, but I suppose the problem exists in every county.

Local authorities are making no effort to restrict the speed of traffic through estates. Some older estates have wider roads where cars can travel at considerable speed. The nature of modern day living is that houses in many estates are rented out. The result is that many young people in their first job live in these houses and have cars. These people are more carefree and may have a more careless approach than traditional householders. Unfortunately, this makes life extremely difficult for young families living in these estates. The one positive aspect of older estates is that back gardens are bigger and people can let their children play there. However, in many new developments, following the guidelines issued by the Department on greater densities, smaller sites and communal play or green areas, children must spend more time on the public roadways of their estates. This has created a major problem for parents.

We are about to enter the summer period and children will have no place to play except in these open public areas, in close proximity to young men and women who are driving for the first time and who may have a careless approach. Unfortunately, they create a serious hazard. As a result many parents will not let their children out and confine them to small back yards or gardens.

In addition, some councils have not progressed their play programmes or the provision of playgrounds. However, I will not get into that now. My purpose in raising this motion is to seek assistance from the Department for the provision of funding to local authorities that will allow them install speed restricting devices in estates. They should limit the width of roadways, put in some kind of chicane that would cause people to slow down or install speed ramps or bumps. This requires funding and local authorities need help in that regard.

For new estates a revision of planning guidelines could ensure planning conditions are changed to ensure all new developments above a certain size or with roads of a certain length are required to put speed restrictions in place, whether by way of traffic islands or other mechanisms. I have sought the assistance of both town and county local authorities in County Clare in this regard. However, they have refused to put in speed restricting measures for a variety of reasons, mainly funding and the fact that if they put them in one estate they will have to put them in all estates.

We must accept there is a problem. We must deal with the legacy of the existing estates and for future developments we must change guidelines to put a condition on builders to install restrictions. Developers would, in many cases, be happy to do this as the cost would be relatively small at construction stage.

I appeal to the Minister, for the sake of young children, to ensure the Government continues to strive for safer roads and give consideration to these proposals.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Senator Dooley for raising this matter. I accept traffic control is an important issue which could contribute so much to the quality of life in residential developments. Providing homes to people in sustainable communities is at the heart of the Government's policy as set out in the new detailed housing policy statement launched recently. The Government's policy includes a strong focus on building active and successful communities through quality housing and is committed to continuing improvements in the quality of houses and neighbourhoods. Guidance on best practice on planning new housing developments in urban areas is set out in the residential density guidelines.

Recent guidance on the important issue of traffic calming is contained in the traffic management guidelines manual which was issued in 2003 by the Department of Transport and my Department. The essential points of these guidelines will be restated in the Department's new sustainable residential development guidelines which will be available in draft form later this year. The purpose of the Traffic Management Guidelines manual was to provide guidance on a variety of issues including traffic planning, traffic calming and management, incorporation of speed restraint measures in new residential designs, and the provision of suitably designed facilities for public transport users and for vulnerable road users. It was prepared in line with national and regional transport strategy guidelines that promote sustainability and accessibility through improvement to, and better management of, the transport system. It was designed to provide assistance to a wide range of people including local authority officials, developers, voluntary organisations and the general public, and also Departments and their agencies.

Section C of the manual deals with speed management and traffic calming. It gives advice on traffic calming measures, both for existing roads and new roads. A number of traffic calming measures are suggested for existing roads, for example, traffic islands, mini-roundabouts, chicanes, ramps, speed cushions. Guidance is provided in respect of the suitability of the various traffic calming measures for different categories of roads.

On new areas, however, the guidelines state that it is possible to constrain speeds without the need to resort to remedial treatments such as ramps. Here the opportunity exists to use horizontal alignment constraints backed up by good urban design to keep speeds low. The careful positioning of buildings, landscaping and the use of different materials can help to reinforce the need to reduce speed and reduce the dominance of motor vehicles.

A number of further measures are also recommended for new areas. These include entry treatment, shared surfaces, carriageway narrowings and chicanes, speed reduction bends, speed control islands, priority junctions and traffic islands.

Traffic calming measures may be funded under the low cost safety improvement works scheme of grants, once the roads have been taken in charge by the local authority. This year the Department has allocated almost €8 million to local authorities in respect of low cost safety improvement works on non-national roads. Local authorities may also use discretionary improvement and block grants, which are allocated to county councils and urban authorities, respectively, to fund such works. This year discretionary improvement and block grant allocations to local authorities total almost €41 million.

Senators will be aware that development contributions, which are attached as conditions of planning permissions, may be spent on a range of public infrastructure benefiting the development. The relevant categories of infrastructure include traffic calming measures.

I am satisfied, therefore, that planning authorities have available detailed guidance on the provision of traffic control measures in all new housing developments, and also that they have adequate funding for such measures in both new and established areas. The Department keeps the need for further planning guidelines under review.

I fully understand the matter raised by Senator Dooley. Better design can help to reduce many of the problems before they arise. Considerable money is coming into many local authorities through development contributions and council members should press the officials that there is no point in hoarding the money and they have the authority to spend it on items such as those to which Senator Dooley referred. I thank Senator Dooley for raising the matter.

Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State. In particular, the reassuring element here is that the Traffic Management Guidelines of which he spoke issued from the Department of Transport and in many cases may have been taken by local authorities to refer to village environments or roads in built up areas rather than to within the confines of housing estates. The fact that the Minister of State intends to restate these through his new sustainable residential development guidelines will act as a further method of enhancing in the minds of planners the necessity to ensure that speed restrictions and the management of traffic through estates is adequately addressed at the planning stage. I would welcome any further measures he might consider such as his Department putting conditions on developers to ensure a traffic safety audit of developments with more than ten houses as part of the planning process. We ensure safety audits in environmental impact statements and in other cases, and it would be helpful to carry out such audits in advance of applications being granted permission.