DÁIL ÉIREANN AN COMHCHOISTE UM THITHÍOCHT, PLEANÁIL AGUS RIALTAS ÁITIÚIL JOINT COMMITTEE ON HOUSING, PLANNING AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT Dé Céadaoin, 18 Deireadh Fómhair 2017 Wednesday, 18 October 2017 Tháinig an Comhchoiste le chéile ag 9 a.m. The Joint Committee met at 9 a.m. Comhaltaí a bhí i láthair / Members present: Teachtaí Dála / Deputies Seanadóirí / Senators Mick Barry,* Victor Boyhan, Pat Casey, Jennifer Murnane O’Connor, Mattie McGrath, Grace O’Sullivan. Fergus O’Dowd. * In éagmais / In the absence of Deputy Ruth Coppinger. I láthair / In attendance: Deputies Hildegarde Naughton and Eamon Ryan. Teachta / Deputy Maria Bailey sa Chathaoir / in the Chair. 1 JHPLG National Planning Framework: Discussion Chairman: We have a quorum and will commence in public session. At the request of the broadcasting and recording services, members are reminded to ensure their mobile telephones are turned off or switched to aeroplane, safe or flight mode, depending on their device, for the duration of the meeting. It is not sufficient to put telephones on silent mode, as that would maintain a level of interference with the broadcasting system. I remind members that the com- mittee will conduct the public session first and then at 11 a.m. we will go into private session for an hour to work on our report as a committee. Is that agreed? Agreed. The purpose of today’s meeting is to consider the national planning framework. I welcome the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, and his officials to today’s meeting. Each member will have five minutes to engage with the Minister. After five minutes we will move to the next member and I would ask members where possible to stick to that and to respect the time so that each member has an opportunity to speak. I will call members again at the end. We will have another round of questions, if there is time. Before we begin, members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not com- ment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the Houses or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable. I now call on the Minister to make his opening statement. Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (Deputy Eoghan Murphy): I thank the Chairman and members. I am joined today by officials Mr. David Walsh, Mr. Paul Hogan and Mr. Niall Cussen. I welcome the opportunity to meet with the committee today on the draft national planning framework, entitled Ireland 2040: Our Plan. The Government has been working on this plan since the end of 2014 and there have been public consultations, regional events and debates, including by this committee and other joint committees, feedback from an expert advisory group and over 700 detailed submissions from a whole range of stake- holders. The draft national planning framework has now been published for one final period of pub- lic consultation. As part of this consultation, a further series of regional seminars are being or- ganised by each of the three regional assemblies, with the first one happening in Waterford this Friday. The conclusions of this committee will be very valuable in finalising the framework by the end of this year and in tandem with a new ten-year national investment plan. The national planning framework is primarily about planning properly for what will be one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe over the next couple of decades, focusing development in existing villages, towns and cities and realising the potential of our regions and our rural areas. There will be at least an extra 1 million people living in the Republic by 2040, taking the population to 5.75 million. This is a 20% increase. The all-island population will be roughly 8 million people by 2040. There will be an extra 600,000 jobs, mainly in the knowledge economy and in services. We will need at least 500,000 new homes for our grow- ing population, and to meet the different housing needs of future generations. The population aged over 65 will double to 1.3 million people, or almost 25% of the total population over the next 20 years. 2 18 OCTOBER 2017 There are political, economic and environmental challenges to be aware of too. Brexit is the most obvious one, but also the future of the European Union and how it might evolve and how that might challenge us; the current risks to free trade being posed by the policies of certain countries and how this might impact on areas like foreign direct investment; technology and the changes it will bring, for how we work and where we live, planning for things like remote working, the shared economy, automation and artificial intelligence; communities, and protect- ing communities as we grow, providing better opportunities as we adapt, regenerating parts of our country that exhibit the signs of disadvantage and unrealised opportunities where we can, and because we must; and climate change. As recent events remind us, our climate is changing and we need to take both the immediate steps to adapt to those changes and put in train changes to address the drivers of climate change, by de-carbonising our way of life and taking advantage of the many opportunities that come from that. The population of Ireland grew by 53,000 people in the year to April 2017. This is the larg- est increase since 2008. It is 1.1% year-on-year growth when the rest of the euro area was es- sentially static. Half the daytime population of Ireland’s three largest cities travel from outside the cities. One quarter of Leinster’s working population travel into Dublin each day. In 2016, 230,000 people commuted at least an hour a day each way, a 30% increase in long commutes in just five years. Just think about what that means for families in terms of quality of life. If we learnt anything from the so-called Celtic tiger era, it was that our future does not lie in our people living in one location, and commuting up to 100 km away to work, juggling work and family lives and losing the battle to strike a reasonable balance. If Ireland continues to develop in the way it always has, with our cities and towns growing fastest at their edges, not in their centres, with our regions and regional cities underperforming, we face a lose-lose strategy for both our urban and rural areas and the people who live and work in them. Therefore, our na- tional planning framework has to have a vision that will navigate us through these challenges, both the existing ones we know of like revitalising our communities, creating better opportuni- ties, improving quality of life and protecting the environment as well as the challenges that may face us in the future due to developments external to us. Building on our strengths, we are in the top ten when it comes to human development, GDP per capita, foreign direct investment and democracy. However, in tackling the challenges, we fall into the top 20 when it comes to quality of life and environmental performance, particularly the relative carbon footprint per capita compared with our EU neighbours, and we fall into the top 30 when we talk about liveable cities. We have undertaken extensive economic and demographic analysis with the help of the ESRI to plot out different scenarios and see which ones make the best use of our resources, our existing communities, our economic, social and environmental opportunities. We have come up with an approach, outlined in the draft framework, that sets out the most sustainable and balanced vision. When we look at the growth of 1 million people and where they might live, we have to try to manage that growth between our five big cities, as well as between our three regions. That means that 25% of national growth should be happening within Dublin, and half of that within the M50. We will need joined-up planning across the local authorities involved, as well as new long-term land plans, for example the redevelopment of the Long Mile and Naas roads. It means another 25% of our forecast growth happening in the cities of Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Galway. Each will have to effectively double in population size at least. Much of Limerick’s growth should be within the Georgian core, while Waterford has significant po- tential along the North Quays. 3 JHPLG Half of the total population growth, almost half a million extra people, will happen every- where else, spread across our villages, towns and wider rural areas. Another way to look at it is that half of the total anticipated growth will take place on the eastern seaboard and in the midlands, and the other half will take place in the southern, western and northern regions. This all has significant implications for how we develop our urban and rural places. If we think back to that quality of life challenge, we must ensure we are creating lasting communities where people can avail of greater opportunities as well as benefit from better stan- dards of living, including access to high-quality education and excellence in healthcare, which are specifically addressed in chapters five and nine. Recognising that by 2040, a quarter of our population will be over the age of 65 this in turn means planning for a greater level of people with disability or other health needs and their quality of life, within communities.