Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 938: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his views on establishing a national standard on the quality and standard of roads and footpaths in urban environment here against which councils should report local performance in the same way as national standards have been set in respect of other aspects of council business [11231/08]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Responsibility for roads policy, including quality standards for roads and footpaths, is primarily a matter for the Minister for Transport and the National Roads Authority under the aegis of his Department.

Insofar as my Department is concerned, on 10 February 2008 I published draft planning guidelines on Sustainable Residential Development in Urban Areas for public consultation, together with an accompanying best practice Urban Design Manual which illustrates how these guidelines can be implemented. These new draft guidelines, which are being issued under section 28 of the Act, are intended to replace the 1999 Guidelines for Planning Authorities on Residential Density, and are focused on creating sustainable communities by incorporating the highest design standards and providing a co-ordinated approach to the delivery of essential infrastructure and services.

Chapter 3 of the draft guidelines outlines, inter alia, the role of streets in creating the urban fabric and a sense of place, and they highlight that the design of residential streets need to strike the right balance between the different functions of the street. The balance between the various functions of a street should help to determine appropriate design speeds, road geometry and the level of adjacent development. I look forward to submissions and comments on these draft guidelines by the closing date of 6 May 2008.

Since 2004, local authorities have reported on performance in relation to 42 indicators of service, covering all aspects of local authority activity. One of these indicators relates to the maintenance of local and regional roads, and local authorities supply data annually on this. The published reports on service indicators, 2004-06, are available in the Oireachtas library.