Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 331: To ask the Minister for Transport the function and responsibility of the National Roads Authority as referred to in the national planning guidelines regarding their responsibility to cater for both local and national traffic; his views on a recent An Bord Pleanála decision regarding a proposed residential development adjacent to the Dunkettle junction Cork and the manner in which the NRA's failure to abide by the regional planning guidelines, to design and implement improvements at the Dunkettle junction is clearly prejudicial to this and other developments including a park and ride facility which has also been turned down by An Bord Pleanála when both developments which are compliant with the Cork Area Strategic Plan (CASP) and the Cork County Development Plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35777/10]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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There are a number of Government policies that address the interface between development and national roads. Where the National Roads Authority participates in the planning process - through consultation with planning authorities on the content of their Development Plans or by way of comments, including appeals to An Bord Pleanála as necessary on planning applications - the Authority seeks to have the objectives of these official policies upheld. Underlying these policies is the recognition that national roads are primarily intended to cater for long-distance inter-urban and inter-regional traffic, rather than short, locally generated trips that should more appropriately be accommodated on local roads or by public transport. Government policy objectives include:

o protecting the substantial investment being made by Government in upgrading national roads;

o maintaining the intended transport function, traffic carrying capacity and efficiency of the network of national roads;

o ensuring high standards of safety for road users and that these standards are not compromised by risks arising from traffic movements associated with multiple access points to the network, and

o extending service life of the national road network, thereby deferring to the longer term the need to reinvest in further road improvements and the construction of new roads which would have implications for landowners, local communities, the environment and public expenditure.

Conflicts can and do occur between development proposals and the broader public interest in maintaining the safety and capacity of the national roads. Such matters fall to be determined by An Bord Pleanála as the body designated to determine the acceptability of individual proposals from proper planning and sustainability perspectives as well as their consistency with relevant official policies.

The National Roads Authority is a statutory consultee under planning legislation and planning authorities must, accordingly, refer to the Authority all planning applications that may impact on national roads. In that capacity, the Authority is entitled to participate in the planning and development process, to make submissions to the planning authority concerned and, in the event of a decision to appeal a planning authority decision, to pursue the matter through An Bord Pleanála.

Under section 17 of the Roads Act 1993, as amended, the statutory remit of the NRA is to secure the provision of a safe and efficient network of national roads. Under section 10 of the Act, local authorities are the statutory authorities responsible for local and regional roads. The NRA has no statutory remit, functions or responsibilities in relation to such regional and local roads, including traffic thereon.

It is clear from long established national policies that national roads are intended primarily to cater for strategic inter-regional and inter-urban traffic. While national roads can and indeed do accommodate some local traffic, it is essential that the volumes of such traffic are not such that would undermine the primary intended function of national roads in catering for strategic inter-regional and inter-urban traffic.

Best practice in relation to development proposals is that the traffic/ trip implications should be assessed and the appropriate manner to cater for such traffic/trips determined as part of the planning application process. Such responses may entail public transport, walking, cycling and/or the upgrade of the local and regional road network such that any residual trips to cater for national roads do not undermine the strategic function of national roads. This approach has most recently been set out in the Guidelines for Planning Authorities which were issued for public consultation in June, 2010, by the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government.