Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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461. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the draft national architecture policy; when the next phase of the consultation will take place; when he will engage with the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage on the matter; and when the plan will be finalised and published. [21559/21]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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My Department is currently finalising the drafting of a new National Policy on Architecture, which will support and be supported by long–term planning and built environment strategies and will assist in addressing key issues including societal well-being, climate change and urban regeneration, such as through the Town Centre First policy, currently in preparation.

As the Deputy will be aware, my Department recently completed a public consultation process allowing the opportunity for all communities, stakeholders and citizens to have their say on the proposed new Policy. The consultation phase considered the main ways in which architecture and our built environment affect society, our health and wellbeing and our ability to prosper. These include climate adaptation and mitigation and sustainable development, the benefits for everyone of obtaining high quality in the built environment, the protection and reuse of our built heritage, ways we can demonstrate built environment leadership and the need to foster education about our built environment.  My Department invited online and written submissions, and social media engagement, alongside a series of workshops and meetings, including virtual workshops in line with public health restrictions, to allow wide-ranging involvement in the drafting of the new policy, as well as consideration of the effect of Covid-19 on our built environment.

The new Policy will be informed by the feedback that was received from the consultation phase, with over 150 submissions, as well as by a review of the previous policy.

It is my intention that the new National Policy on Architecture will play an integral part in implementing our vision for the future, providing policy actions that will encourage best quality in researching, understanding, managing, enhancing and reusing our existing built environment assets as well as delivering sustainable new places and spaces.

My Department is also following the emerging New European Bauhaus initiative, which was launched in January 2021 by the Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen. The Bauhaus will link directly to the priorities and funding streams of the Green Deal, therefore it is important that the National Policy on Architecture is aligned with this Europe-wide built environment initiative.

I hope to circulate the draft policy to key stakeholders and Government Departments for observations in the next few weeks and I will also consult with the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage at that time.  Publication of the final policy will follow on from this consultation.