Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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258. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to outline policy and define clear planning guidelines with regard to future planning applications that may be submitted on national routes. [40245/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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National policy in relation to the provision of access to national roads is set out in the Spatial Planning and National Roads Guidelines for Planning Authorities (2012) which were issued by the Minister under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. Section 28 requires that planning authorities and An Bord Pleanála shall have regard to Ministerial guidelines in the performance of their functions under the Act.

The Guidelines seek to protect the capacity, efficiency and safety of national roads and their strategic transport function through both the plan-making and development management processes. This approach is also reflected in the National Planning Framework, and the three Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies, as well as at county development plan level, across the Country.

Section 1.5 of the Guidelines indicates that the creation of new accesses and the intensification of existing accesses to national roads gives rise to the generation of additional turning movements that introduce additional safety risks to road users. Therefore, planning authorities and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) must guard against a proliferation of roadside developments accessing national roads to which speed limits greater than 50-60 km/h apply as part of the overall effort to reduce road fatalities and injuries.

Without prejudice to the foregoing, section 2.6 of the Guidelines includes provisions governing exceptional circumstances where planning authorities may identify stretches of national roads where a less restrictive approach to development may be applied. This should occur as part of the process of reviewing or varying the relevant development plan and having consulted and having regard to the advice of TII.

The Guidelines indicate that a less restrictive approach may be adopted in the case of developments of national and regional strategic importance which by their nature are most appropriately located outside urban areas, and where the locations concerned have specific characteristics that make them particularly suitable for the developments proposed. The Guidelines set out ten matters to be taken into account by planning authorities and TII when considering whether a proposal relates to a development of national and regional strategic importance.

In addition, a less restrictive approach may also apply to areas where development may require new accesses to certain lightly-trafficked sections of national secondary routes serving structurally weak and remote communities where a balance needs to be struck between the important transport functions of such roads and supporting the social and economic development of these areas.

Where planning authorities wish to identify an area / national road where the foregoing less restrictive approaches could apply in a development plan they must:

(a) Consult with TII at the earliest practicable stage in reviewing the development plan on the identification of areas and developments that the planning authority considers represent exceptional circumstances, taking the criteria specified in the guidelines into account; and

(b) Ensure that any submissions from TII have been fully and properly considered within the process of preparing the plan.

Planning authorities should adopt a collaborative and evidence-based approach to this work, mindful of their separate statutory obligation to notify TII of all planning applications to which Article 28(1)(k) of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001 relates.

In considering this matter, planning authorities should be mindful that the criteria specified in the Guidelines are informed by road safety considerations and protecting the strategic transport function of the national roads network, which is essential for interurban and inter-regional traffic, tourism, the movement of freight, public transport and the emergency services.

The Guidelines are clear that the planning system must ensure that the strategic function of national roads is maintained by limiting the extent of development that would give rise to the generation of short trip traffic on national roads or alternatively by ensuring that the trip demand from future development will primarily be catered for on the non-national network.

Accordingly, the Guidelines provide clear policy direction to planning authorities in relation to development proposed to be accessed from national roads, and the process to be followed before an exemption in relation to access to national roads is included in a development plan.